L1BP OF CONGRESS. 

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UNITED STATES OF AMERICA. 



THE 




Christ id Paul— Socrates and Plato— 



WHICH P 

Future Punishment : 
Biblical, Scientific and Philosophic. 

Endless Misery and Purgatorial Restoration , 
Myths of Heathenism. 



WHAT IS TRUTH? 

"See, I have set before thee this day, life and good, and, death and evil." — Deut. Xxx, 15. 



BY 



Prof. THOMAS MITCHELL, 



THE BIBLICAL AND SCIENTIFIC 



BROOKLYN, N. F. 



f 






AUTHOR OF , "Vq^Tq" 

' Philosophy of God and the World ',' " The Gospel CrcnvfKr-o' 

Old Paths" "Philosophy of Spiritualism, (No SpTr-Us^'^oli^/i^ 

Tragedy" (A Poem,) "Voices from Paradise" (A Poem,)." The 

True and False Church" "Commentary on the Book of 

Revelation" "Civil and Religious Liberty •" 

11 Darwinism and the Geological 

A ntiquity of Man, refuted 

by Philosophy^ Science 

and the Bible " 

" Phonetic and Stenographic Short Hand" 

11 Water Baptism No Ordinance of the Christian Church. n 




Brooklyn, N. Y. : 
H. R. Starkweather, Pkinter, 235 Adelphi Street. 

1878. 



Tf 



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H 



f 



Entered according to Act of Congress, in the year 1878, by 

THOMAS MITCHELL, The Author, 

in the Office of the Librarian of Congress, at Washington. 



^hb Library 
of Congress 

washington 



INTRODUCTION. 



A T a recent meeting of the New York Synod of the 
Reformed Episcopal Church, comprising the States 
of New York, New Jersey and Connecticut, on a discus- 
sion of a resolution relating to eternal, conscious torment, 
Dr. Leacock said, " That if the Church failed to adopt 
the resolution it would go down. Eternal punishment 
was the foundation of all grace." Dr. Sabine said, "That 
they could not consult their own feelings in the doctrine 
of eternal punishment. They all wished that after-pun- 
ishment would not be eternal, but they should be guided 
by the word of God." The resolution was, "Whether 
they believe that the punishment of the wicked is eternal 
and conscious." 

We do not quote their opinions in our Introduction be- 
cause of the prominence of the individuals enunciating 
them, but because they give expression to a common ab- 
surdity and a common wish connected with the doctrine 
of " Endless misery." The absurdity is, that eternal pun- 
ishment is the foundation of all grace. 

Now, if such is the truth, then there is the same relation 
and connection between the punishment and the grace as 
between the foundation of a house and the house built 



IV. 

thereon — without the one the other has no existence ; the 
house, therefore, being built upon the foundation, is of the 
foundation, and so the grace is of the punishment. It is 
proper, therefore, to read all the passages of Scripture 
containing the word " grace," with the qualifying words 
" Eternal punishment " before them. It must also be re- 
membered that grace means "favor/' "a free gift." Paul 
had a thorn in the flesh, the messenger of satan, to buffet 
him, and for his encouragement God says to him, " My 
grace is sufficient for you," and according to Dr. Leacock 
He should have said, " Paul, My grace of eternal punish- 
ment is sufficient for you, which I will freely give unto 
you, and it is to be inflicted by satan, who will buffet you 
without any end." 

u The grace of God, that bringeth salvation, hath ap- 
peared unto all men." The new reading would be, 
" God's grace or free gift of eternal punishment, that bring- 
eth salvation, hath appeared unto all men." "Be sober 
and hope unto the end for the grace that is to be brought 
unto us at the appearing of Jesus Christ." The new ver- 
sion w r ould read it, " Hope unto the end for the grace of 
eternal punishment which is to be brought unto us at the 
appearing of Jesus Christ, which He will freely give unto 
us." "The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you 
all, Amen."' The reformed reading would be, " The grace 
of eternal punishment be with you all, Amen, which He 
shall freely give unto you." 

That it was the wish of that whole Synod that future 



punishment was not eternal, as declared by Dr. Sabine, 
we cannot but have our doubts, and that they only yield- 
ed to it because it is taught by the Word of God. If 
they were as willing that the Word of God should not 
teach it as that it does teach it, why did they add to the 
W r ord of God the qualifying word " conscious," to those 
of eternal punishment, in their resolution ? That all the 
advocates of endless misery add words to those of the 
Words of God, it seems to us betrays a sectarian bias and 
determination to adhere to the heathen dogma at all haz- 
ards, utterly disqualifying them to reason upon the ques- 
tions involved. Indeed, this hallucination impeils them 
on in the fearful work of changing the Words of God 
under the pretense of believing them, which amounts to 
infatuation, making them teach exactly opposite ideas, 
turning as deaf an ear to the following fearful warning as 
though it was not in the Bible : " For I testify unto every 
man that heareth the words of the prophesy of this Book, 
if any man shall add unto these things, God shall add 
unto him the plagues that are written in this Book ; and if 
any man shall take away from the words of the Book of 
this prophesy, God shall take away his part out of the 
Book of life, and out of the Holy City, and from the things 
which are written in this Book." — Rev. xxii, 18, 19. 

Let us introduce some examples to show how the advo- 
cates of endless misery thus take away and add to the 
words of the Book of God. Endless punishment implies 
eternal life, but there is not one passage in the Bible 



VI. 

which says the wicked have or ever shall have eternal or 
everlasting life. Nor is there a single passage which says 
man's soul or spirit is by nature immortal or immortal at 
all ; but conscious torment renders its possession indis- 
pensable, as a being must live, in order to be conscious, 
and he must be conscious in order to suffer ; and if the 
suffering is endless, his life and consciousness must be 
also eternal. On the other hand, eternal life is promised 
to the righteous and is conferred alone by Jesus Christ. 
And we may add that these terms mean nothing more 
than conscious existence — not happiness; not misery; 
these are additionally promised and threatened to the 
righteous and the wicked, and of themselves imply exist- 
ence, but not duration. Immortality or eternal life sim- 
ply gives the qualification to suffer or enjoy, but is no part 
of either. If the words endless punishment, endless suf- 
fering or endless misery were in the Bible, that would end 
the controversy to the satisfaction of all who received it 
as the Word of God ; but when men are obliged to add 
these in order to make it teach their doctrine, and call the 
unholy " BabeV the Word of God, what else does it ex- 
hibit but the most " deceitful handling of the Word of 
God,'' and how can such men honestly declare they wish 
future punishment was not eternal? If they really de- 
sired the punishment of the wicked not to be endless, 
would they not be willing to quote the Words of God 
without qualifying terms added, to make them state the 
fact with the utmost positiveness, which otherwise could 



Vll. 

admit of nothing but inferences in its support ? To make 
out this doctrine they are not only obliged to add quali- 
fying terms, but those which convey exactly opposite 
ideas. 

To illustrate this perversion of the Word of God we 
will introduce a few examples : " Fear Him which is able 
to destroy both soul and body in hell." — Matt, x, 28. 
Quoting from Aristotle, Socrates and Plato, in answer to 
this, they say, " Jesus, you are mistaken ; the soul is im- 
mortal, and therefore you nor your Father are able to de- 
stroy it. It is absolutely indestructable ; so, sinners, you 
need not fear such a penalty." What you should have 
said, was, that He intended to preserve — not destroy — the 
soul and body both, in hell. Indeed, I made it so that I 
cannot destroy the soul if I would. Here we have the 
nonsense that any being cannot unmake what he made, 
supposing him not to have lost his mind or power. " The 
Lord Jesus shall be revealed from heaven with His mighty 
angels, in flaming fire, taking vengeance on them that 
know not God, and obey not the gospel of our Lord Jesus 
Christ, who shall be punished with everlasting destruc- 
tion. " — 2 Thess. i, 8, 9. This is an error of materialism, 
Paul, the soul is the man proper, and being immaterial 
and immortal, it is absolutely indestructable. 

" For God so loved the world, that He gave His only 
begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in Him should not 
perish, but have everlasting life." This means that who- 
soever disbelieves in Christ, and spurns the love of God, 



Vlll. 

shall never perish, but have everlasting life; indeed, the 
•wicked are imperishable. " But the wicked shall perish, 
and the enemies of the Lord shall be as fat of lambs ; 
they shall consume; into smoke shall they consume 
away." — Ps. xxxvii, 20. This means they shall never con- 
sume at all, for if they consumed in the least degree there 
would come a time when they would cease to exist, and 
this would contradict Plato, who says they are immortal, 
and, therefore, it cannot be true. 

" Behold, the day cometh that shall burn as an oven ; 
and all the proud, yea, and all that do wickedly, shall be 
stubble; and the day that cometh shall burn them up, 
saith the Lord of hosts, that it shall leave them neither 
root nor branch." — Mai. iv, 1. All we have to say about 
this passage is that it is poetry, or highly strung figurative 
speech. To represent the wicked as being as combusta- 
ble as stubble, when the heathen philosophers declare 
them immortal, imperishable and indestructable, would be 
to become a materialist. 

"He that being often reproved, hardeneth his neck, 
shall suddenly be destroyed, and that without remedy. ,, 
Prov. xxix, 1. The wicked cannot be destroyed, the 
remedy against it is, that they are immortal, and therefore 
indestructible. " For the day of the Lord is near, upon 
all the heathen, and they shall be as though they had not 
been." — Obadiah, 15, 16. This passage is a wrong trans- 
lation, it should have been, " The wicked shall always be" 
for their existence is endless. "The soul that sinneth, it 



IX. 

shall die." — Ez. xviii, 4. This passage also is a bad trans- 
lation. It should have been rendered, " The soul that 
sinneth, it shall never die," and this would also suit our 
beautiful hymn : 

" A never-dying soul to save 
And fit it for the sky." 

In view of taking such liberty with the production of a 
human author, is it possible that any respect for him 
should be felt, or any fear of consequences ? And if the 
same course is persued with the teachings of the Bible by 
any man, is it possible for him to have the least realization 
that an infinitely wise Being is its author, or that man is to 
be judged by His Words at the last day ? Christ said, " The 
words that I have spoken unto you they shall judge you 
in the last day." What such men say, in fact, is, that the 
doctrines taught by Aristotle, Socrates and Plato, relating 
to the immortality of the soul and future punishment, are 
orthodox, while Jesus and Paul, and all who believe their 
doctrines upon these subjects, are heretics, and the system 
is a low species of materialism. A little girl said, " Mamma, 
If God did not mean what He said, why did He not tell us 
what He did mean?" It would be well for the Doctors 
to take the rebuke. 

That our readers may not be intimidated by the cheap 
parrot cry of " Heresy, "from the reception of Bible truth, 
let us briefly consider it. There are but two passages in 
the Scriptures which show in what heresy consists. These 
relate to Christ's death and resurrection. One is brought 



X. 

out in Paul's defence before Felix and Agrippa. Says 
the Apostle, " Neither can they prove the things whereof 
they accuse me ; but this I confess unto thee, that after 
the way which they call heresy, so worship I the God of 
my fathers, believing all things which are written in the 
law and in the prophets ; and have hope toward God, 
which they themselves also allow, that there shall be a res- 
urrection of the dead, both of the just and unjust. Let 
these say if they have found any evil doings in me, ex- 
cept, while I stood before the council, it be for this one 
voice that I cried, standing among them, touching the 
resurrection of the dead," (for which) " I am called in 
question by you this day ; and now I stand, and am 
judged for the hope of the promise made of God unto our 
fathers ; unto which promise, our twelve tribes, instantly 
serving God day and night, hope to come. For which 
hope's sake, King Agrippa, I am accused ot the Jews. 
Why should it be thought a thing incredible with you, 
that God should raise the dead ? For these causes the 
Jews caught me in the temple, and went about to kill me ; 
having therefore obtained help of God, I continue unto 
this day, witnessing both to small and great, saying none 
other things than those which the Prophets and Moses did 
say should come ; that Christ should suffer, and that He 
should be the first that should rise from the dead." — Acts 
xxiv, 13 — 15, 2-1, chapter xxvi, 6 — 8, 21 — 23. 

It is certain from this that the doctrine that Christ died 
and rose again, is not heresy, or Paul was a heretic. Neither 



XI. 



is it the death and resurrection of the body that constitutes 
this doctrine. What is called " The Apostle's creed," but 
which contains the Papal heresy that the death of Christ 
or the saints was nothing but separation, in the words, 
"I believe in the resurrection of the body." The Papists 
had adopted the heathen doctrine of Aristotle and Plato, 
that the soul, or spirit, was immortal, and was the man 
proper, applying it equally to Christ, and denning it to be 
the living, feeling, thinking, intellectual being who dwelt 
in the mortal, material body as its house. Hence> Christ 
did not and could not have died. And as the material, 
mortal body was no part of the living inhabitant, neither 
could it die ; therefore, there was no death of Christ at 
all, and if there was no death there could have been no 
resurrection of the dead, as that which did not die could 
not be raised from the dead. 

We have, however, seen that it was Christ himself who 
suffered, died and rose again from the dead, and not 
merely His body, as it is expressed. It is evident from 
this, that it was the Jews themselves who were the heretics, 
and not Paul, and that the heresy consisted in the denial 
of the resurrection of the dead. The other passage is as 
follows : " But there were false Prophets ' (teachers) " also 
among the people, even as there shall be false teachers 
among you, who privily shall bring in damnable heresies, 
even denying the Lord that bought them, and bring upon 
themselves swift destruction, and many shall follow their 
pernicious ways,. by reason of whom the way of truth shall 



Xll. 

be evil spoken of." — 2 Pet. ii, 1, 2. 

That the death and resurrection of Christ, not His 
body, is the price by which the salvation of men becomes 
possible, are the very foundation-truths of Christianity. 
Hence, there are scores of such passages as these : " Ye are 
bought with a price." — 1 Cor. vi, 20. " Christ died for 
us." — Rom. v, 8. It was Christ, not His body, that died. 
" For as much as ye know that ye were not redeemed with 
corruptable things, as silver and gold, but with the pre- 
cious blood of Christ." — 1 Pet. i, 18, 19. It was not with 
the precious blood of His body, but with Christ himself, 
" Which none of the princes of this world knew ; for had 
they known, they would not have crucified the Lord of 
glory," — 1 Cor. ii, 8. Here we see it was the Lord of 
glory, and not simply the lowest, dead, material part of 
Him, which was crucified. 

" And the angel answered and said unto the woman, 
fear ye not, for I know that ye seek Jesus, which was 
crucified ; He is not here, for He is risen, as He said. 
Come, see the place where the Lord lay." — Matt, xxviii, 
5, 6. Here it was Jesus who was crucified, and not His 
body— the house in which He lived. It was the Lord 
himself who had laid dead in the tomb, and not simply the 
material body in which He had resided, and out of which 
He had moved, never having died at all. In fact, being 
immortal, He could not have died;, Christ the Lord, 
therefore, cheated death, and never died for sinners, and 
hence, they cannot be saved. This is the " damnable 



Xlll. 

heresy," Paul said should come, " denying the Lord that 
bought them." And Jesus going up to Jerusalem, took 
the twelve disciples apart in the way, and said unto them, 
behold, we go up to Jerusalem ; and the Son of Man shall 
be betrayed unto the chief priests, and unto the scribes, 
and they shall condemn Him to death and shall crucify 
Him, and the third day He shall rise again." — Matt, xx, 
17, 19. Here Jesus himself was to be crucified, killed, 
and rise from the dead the third day, and not His body 
merely, which was only a part of Himself. The living, 
feeling, thinking part was not to live on as though nothing 
had happened, thus cheating death of its prey, and by 
this monster heresy of the w r orld, failing to redeem men 
by His death and resurrection. 

It is the doctrine of the natural immortality of the soul 
of Christ and that of His saints, which renders His death 
and resurrection, and their death and resurrection, impos- 
sibilities, and is, therefore, the most damnable heresy ever 
introduced into the world, giving man eternal life through 
the first Adam, by natural transmission, leaving Christ, 
the second Adam, nothing to do. As this was the great 
object for which He was given, and to be accomplished 
by the love of God, thus expressed : " God so loved the 
world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoso- 
ever believeth in Hirn should not perish, but have ever- 
lasting life." The heathens respond to God, " You might 
have saved your love, and to Christ, you might have 
avoided your sufferings, if you had understood Aristotle, 



XIV. 

Socrates and Plato, who could have informed you that all 
men have eternal life, immortal souls, already." 

In the estimation of the Jews, all Christians are heretics. 
In that part of Roman Catholicism, all Protestants are 
heretics, and in the estimation of Protestants, all Jews 
and Catholics are heretics. In the sub-division of these, 
all are heretical to each other, each creed being the stand- 
ard of orthodoxy, expelling members for not believing 
these, and forbidding them to appeal to the Bible as au- 
thority in making their defence. In view of such facts, 
we hold it to be a very high recommendation to be called 
a heretic by Jews, Catholics and Protestants, and any man 
thus stigmatized, may exultingly exclaim with Paul, 
" After the manner which they call heresy, so worship I 
the God of my fathers," " Calling no man master but 
Christ/' The cry of heresy is, in our day, as harmless 
against those who appeal alone to the Holy Scriptures for 
their doctrines 

"As a tale told by an idiot, full 
Of sound and fury, signifying nothing." 

"He who cannot reason is a fool; he who dare not 
reason is a bigot, but he who reasons freely is a man." 



TABLE OF CONTENTS. 



The Times Favorable for the Discussion ig 

Advocates of Eternal Torments, Embarrassed 20 

The Notion of Going to Heaven at Death, not True 21 

The Hypothesis of Purgatorial Restoration, Unreasonable 

and Unscriptural 23 

A Proud Sinner in Heaven 25 

Endless Misery the most Unphilosophic and Unscriptural 

of all Other Theories 26 

The Punishment, a Guilty Conscience, Absurd 29 

The Hypothesis Offers Great Reward Instead of Punishment 31 

The True Hypothesis, Extinction of Conscious Being 32 

The Question Dividing the Subject, Sin and Death 34 

Why the World was Cursed 35 

The Devil, Sinners and Sin, Doomed to Destruction 37 

Man Lost Everlasting Life when he Sinned 39 

Destruction Always Without End 40 

Hell, the Grave, and the Hell of Future Punishment 41 

The Terms Describing the Punishment 42 

The Place where the Wicked were Consumed, an Eternal 

Monument 43 

Wicked Men and Devils Punished on the Earth 45 

The Location of Hell 45 

The Quenchless Fires Go Out 49 

The Great Contest between Christ and the Wicked at the 

Last Day 50 

The Infliction of the Second Death 53 

Wicked Wresting of the Scriptures 55 

Scripture Testimony that the Wicked will be Destroyed. ... 56 

The Worm shall not Die 60 



XVI. 

The Smoke of their Torment Goes Out 62 

The Meaning of the Words Forever and Ever not Necessarily 

Endless 62 

This Discussion a Subject of Prophesy Connected with the 

Coming of Christ 66 

Limitation of the Word Everlasting 67 

The Words "Vengeance of Eternal Fire," not Endless Misery 69 

A Three-fold Argument 70 

Origin of the Doctrine of Endless Torments, Heathen Phil- 
osophy 71 

Socrates on Immortality 73 

Socrates went to Heaven at Death 75 

How the Heathen Doctrine of Endless Misery Came into the 

Church 75 

Catholicism Founded on Heathenism 78 

Socrates did not Die, he only Moved out of his Body ; but 

Jesus did die 79 

The Doctrine of Immortality by Christ in the Resurrection, 

Fatal to Romanism , Si 

The Origin of Purgatory 83 

Heathen Future Punishment, Adopted by Protestantism. ... 84 

The Heresy of Exalting Satan to be Christ's Compeer 86 

Eternal Misery Forbids the Possibility of Loving God 87 

God's Ministers and Plato's 91 

Eternal Life Offered to the Righteous 92 

Heathenism Knew Nothing of the Immortality of the Gospel 94 
No Rewards or Punishments till the Resurrection at the 

Last Day 95 

The Saints not to be with the Lord, Until He Comes Again. 97 

What Things are Subjects of God's Decrees , 98 

This not a New Doctrine 99 

The Immortal Change of the Living Saints at the Last Day.. 100 

The Two Adams — One Giving Death, the Other, Life 101 

The Platonic Distribution of Souls 101 

Death not Death, but Separation — a Doctrine of the Devil. . 102 
Consciousness After Death, Wholly Supported by Inference. 

Location of Paradise 104 

The Transfiguration, a Vision of Final Glory Beyond the Res- 
urrection 112 



XV11. 

When are the Saints the Children of God ? 114 

How to Determine the Chronology of Events 116 

Elijah Died, in Common with all Men 117 

Enoch Died also, and awaits his Resurrection and Translation 11S 

No Man Ever Went to God in Heaven 120 

The Laws of Physiology and the Bible, Harmonize 121 

Physiology Connected with this Question 121 

What is the Soul ? 122 

What is the Meaning of Spirit ? 124 

Objection, "Lord Jesus, Receive my Spirit," Considered 127 

Wind, Breath, and Spirit, Mean the Same 128 

Etymology of the Word Spirit 130 

Thought Depends Upon Life, Life Upon Organization 131 

All the Vital Organs, Parts of Life 132 

The Immortality of the Soul, Shown to be absurd by the 

Word of God 135 

That the Spirit is Immortal, also Shown to be absurd by the 

Scriptures 139 

No Future Punishment for the Heathen.-The Principle Stated 143 

The Heathen Suffer the First Death, but Not the Second 147 

The Conditions of Salvation or Eternal Life.. , 150 

The Place and Nature of the Promised Reward 152 

Dr. Edward Beecher's Criticism on the Words Aei and 

Aionios 153 

Reason for Introducing these Opinions 156 

Objection, "This View Takes Away the Motive to Repent- 
ance," Answered 157 

God's Oath in Contrast to the Picture of Horror 162 

The Heathen Doctrine of Future Punishment Denies Christ's 

Death and Resurrection 163 

An Appeal to the Corruptees of God's Words 165 



Christ and Paul or Socrates and Plato 



WHICH ? 



The Times Favorable for the Discussion. 

We were engaged in writing an Exegesis or Commen- 
tary on the Book of Revelation, and had advanced to the 
words, " That thou shouldst destroy them which destroy 
the earth," as the last event of the seventh trumpet — 
chapter xi, verse 18, when the subject of future punish- 
ment sprang up, about a year ago, as by the touch of the 
Almighty, and from the grave of silence, wherein it had 
been interred for the last twenty-five years, and we deter- 
mined to give it a thorough investigation, selecting that 
relating to it from the manuscript, and to have it pub- 
lished in the present form. 

That the majority of the ministers of the present day 
have come into the pulpit during this period, leaves them 
less committed upon the subject of any particular views, 
and thereby better qualified for impartial investigation, in 
consequence of which there is much of the best talent of 
the United States and England defending the doctrine of 
the utter extermination of the wicked, and if not asso- 
ciated with the heathen, philosophic notion of the natural 
immortality of the soul, there is not a scholar in either 
country who would not adopt .this view of the subject. It 



20 Christ and Paul ; or, 

is plainly evident that the advocates of eternal, conscious 
torments, find themselves embarrassed at every point of 
the discussion concerning its nature and duration, and are 
obliged to have recourse to a system of interpretation of 
Bible language, which would be considered the work of a 
magician if applied to any other book, and utterly un- 
worthy the honest student of the Word of God. 

The Advocates of Eternal Torments Embarrassed. 

According to it, destruction means ? endless preservation ; 
fire and brimstone, a guilty conscience ; forever, absolute- 
ly endless ; death means eternal life. It also compels 
them to contend for such incongruities, and even absurd- 
ities, as the following : That though God made the soul, 
He cannot unmake or destroy it. That the wicked, hav- 
ing gone, immediately at death, into hell, are taken out at 
the judgment, tried for the deeds they had done while 
living upon earth, for which some of them had been suf- 
fering already six thousand years, and then remanded 
back to their spiritual prison, there not to die, but to live 
forever. That the devil is now in hell, and yet he is going 
about like a roaring lion, seeking whom he may devour 
on earth. That though it is plainly declared Christ is to 
destroy the devil himself, and also his works, sin and sin- 
ners, he is going to do no such thing, but to preserve and 
perpetuate both, the sin to be without end, that He may 
be justified in punishing the sinner for the same duration. 
That the devil, the wickedest sinner of all, and God's 
greatest enemy, is to be exalted, to be hell's king, reigning 
most despotically over as many subjects as can be counted 
in Christ's kingdom, the victims of his malicious hate and 
cruelty, and but for whom they would have been in 



Socrates and Plato. — Which? 21 

Christ's own kingdom. Such are some of the sophistries 
and rediculous attitudes the defence of this old, foolish, 
heathen mythology compels the wise divines of the nine- 
teenth century to assume. 

That all go to Heaven at Death, or at 
all, Exploded. 

In relation to future punishment, there are, at the pres- 
ent day, four hypotheses. One of these claims that all go 
to heaven as soon as they die, entirely without regard to 
their moral character; the murderer, the suicide, the gam- 
bler, the drunkard, and the most grossly sunken in sin 
and vice ; all ; all ascend from the slums of iniquity, to 
mingle promiscuously with the purest human saints, angels 
and God. In regard to this theory, we may just remark, 
for it needs but a remark to dispose of it, that its injustice 
to the righteous, the moral similitude of virtue and God, 
puts it out of the controversy. According to the law of 
human nature and society, men seek congeniality of men- 
tal and moral qualities, and the highest type of Christian 
virtue are the most pained, when, by any circumstances, 
they are forced into the social circles of the low and 
vicious. In the present world, they may be spared such 
punishment by shunning the contact ; but this theory 
forces those who have made the greatest attainments in 
assimilation to the Great Model himself, to associate in 
close companionship with all the vileness gathered from 
the earth. It is true and magnanimous that these highest, 
as did Christ himself, mingle with the very lowest in order 
to elevate and save, but now all are in heaven and beyond 
the possibility of moral reformation. They have passed 
the chronological period, when it had been said, " He 



22 Christ and Paul ; or, 

that is unjust, let him be unjust still; and he which is 
filthy, let him be filthy still ; and he that is righteous, let 
him be righteous still ; and he that is holy, let him be 
holy still. And behold, I come quickly ; and My reward 
is with Me, to give to every man according as his work 
shall be. I am Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the 
end, the first and the last. Blessed are they that do His 
commandments, that they may have right to the tree of 
life, and may enter in through the gates into the city ; for 
with out, are dogs, and sorcerers, and whore-mongers, and 
murderers, and idolaters, and whosoever loveth and mak- 
eth a lie. ,, — Rev. xxii, n — 15. Hence, the Word of God 
is in bold contrast to this doctrine. In contradiction to 
this, if it be claimed that the highest would reform the low- 
est by mingling together in heaven, we answer, if it had 
failed on earth, where such society existed, that is, where 
the virtuous were, but whose company was shunned by the 
wicked, except for the purpose of robbery and murder, 
why should it succeed any better in any other place ? — 
transportation does not affect moral character. It must 
be granted that where a very small number of vicious 
men, placed into a society, composed say of ninety-five 
per cent, of the most virtuous, they would grow like them ; 
but the fact is quite otherwise, showing that the vast ma- 
jority who have lived and died are of the character here 
mentioned hy the Revelator, and as the philosophy of 
this principle operates both ways, the wicked would be^ 
more likely to seduce and corrupt the lesser number of 
the righteous, and convert all into haters of God's right- 
eous government, just as they are now in the world. The 
best that could be realized in such a state of things, where 
the two extremes meet, would be a compromise of virtue 
and vice — a lowering of the standard of holiness to accom-' 



Socrates and Plato. — Which? 23 

modate, and, to an extent, to elevate the low, but which 
would compel God to banish the whole sin-loving com- 
pany from His presence and dominions. In the very na- 
ture of things, therefore, God would cease to be God were 
He to admit the wicked into heaven ; and for the very 
reason that He would be unjust to the righteous in pun- 
ishing them with such painful association, as well as ren- 
dering them liable to contamination from the surrounding 
evil examples. Let it be remembered, also, that the ad- 
vocates of this theory call the present world, hell, and the 
wicked, devils, because of the existence of this vicious 
character, and to transport it to any other place would it 
not be hell, still, and the actors, devils still; and if to 
heaven, would it not become hell itself? Behold, the 
conclusion of the universal-salvation hypothesis ! Let 
the highest Angel in heaven leave his abode and continue 
to associate w r ith his fallen companions, and he, too, would 
become a devil. To suppose such a system was taught in 
the Bible, and that God was its author, presents the most 
unphilosophic thought that ever floated through a human 
brain. No ! 

" Vice is a monster of so great a mien, 
To be hated needs but to be seen ; 
Yet, seen too oft', familiar with his face, 
We first endure, then pity, then embrace." 

—Pope. 



The Hypothesis of Restoration or Purgatory 
Unreasonable and Unscriptural. 

The second hypothesis is, that all sinners are pardoned 
and purefied in the next world, in a kind of purgatorial 
half-way house, in which there are various apartments to 



24 Christ and Paul ; or, 

suit the standards of sinners entering, each one as soon as 
he dies, as well as degrees of punishment through which 
all pass to fit them for heaven. This is the doctrine 
of the Catholic Church, and all the modifications of 
restorationism, including the Spiritualist, who fully adopts 
the doctrine of Socrates of natural immortality, bodiless 
spirits and purgatory, even to the idea that some are so 
vicious that they will never reach the society of the gods. 
In regard to this theory, we may say that all the objections 
we have offered against the other are more fatal to this, 
for in this future world of punishment, all are wicked, all 
are vicious, and not a good example for imitation to virtue 
existing ; therefore, in the very nature of things, all must 
remain vicious, and grow more so, no matter what might 
be the wish of any for elevation ; no power could exist for 
its indulgence or practice amid the surrounding down- 
ward gravities. Besides this, it must be remembered that 
no one is estimated virtuous, and a fit subject for God's 
kingdom, but those who love Him from the heart. Now, 
let it be proclaimed in purgatory, that every one, as soon 
as they are punished, so that they thus love the punisher, 
will be immediately released and admitted into His heav- 
enly abode, how many would ever be qualified to fulfill 
the condition. It is true, many, and perhaps all, might be 
induced to profess to love Him, in order to escape further 
torments, but this would only add to their guilt the sin of 
heartless hypocrisy. This might defy the eye of man to 
detect, as he judges from appearances, but could not de- 
ceive the God whose eye looks into the heart, perceives 
its motives, discerns the intentions and most secret 
thoughts, taking cognizance of what the man is, and not 
what he may profess to be. How long, for illustration, 
would you have to burn a man, either in literal or spiritual 



Socrates and Plato. — Which? 25 

fire, to make him love you ? But you might induce him 
to beg your forgiveness, or to make any kind of promises 
to do service for you, to release himself from further pun- 
ishment, and if released, to fulfill them all ; but to make 
him love you is not in his power ; indeed, it would tanta- 
lize him with the unreasonable demand and impossible 
duty, and would make him hate you still more. Hence, 
the spurious philosophy ot the purgatorial fires, or any 
species of punishment, for the accomplishment of such 
an end. 



A Proud Sinner in Heaven. 

Besides, if it were true, it would set aside all mercy and 
grace, the most prominent principles of God's revealed 
plan of salvation. Those who had been punished to the 
full demerit of their crimes, would come up and demand 
admission into heaven on strictly legal grounds, asking no 
favors of saints, angels, Christ or God. He says, open 
the golden gate ; I have paid the full penalty justice de- 
manded ; I care nothing for God ; He punished me all the 
time, and to the full extent, in degree, justice would per- 
mit, and I am under no obligation to Him ; I sing no 
songs in glorification of Christ, and His sufferings or sym- 
pathies for me ; I have never humiliated myself to repent- 
ance or confession ; I have asked no grace ; I come here 
in the dignity of my manhood ; I have suffered the full 
penalty for all my mis-deeds, and now I come and de- 
mand pay for my good ones ; I have a legal claim against 
God Almighty, and have nothing whatever to do with 
Jesus Christ ; pay me, or I will foreclose the mortgage and 
take possession of the throne and all the crown jewels 
myself, and throw all heaven into bankruptcy. Here is a 



26 Christ and Paul ; or, 

proud sinner in heaven, a single specimen of the millions 
sent up by the genius of the restoration fires and discip- 
line. We will not appeal to the Bible in refutation of 
such doctrine, for men who can so wrest the language of 
the Book as to make it teach it, cannot have the least con- 
ception of its being the Word of God, or feel it to be the 
least authority in the settlement of any question. 

Endless Misery the Most Unphilosophical and 
Unscriptural of all Other Theories. 

The third hypothesis is that of the ever-living, con- 
scious torments of the wicked. This, we think, is the 
most objectionable of all others, for by taking all its ele- 
ments into the account, it not only does not admit of any 
kind or degree of punishment, but proposes absolute re- 
ward to every sinner, by placing him in conditions vastly 
superior to those he enjoys in the present life. These re- 
sults grow out of the nature of its philosophy, giving every 
sinner an immortal soul by nature, and making the body 
also immortal at the resurrection. The advocates of this 
theory generally deny that the instrument of punishment 
is fire, with the exception of a very few, and even these 
only admit of the bare possibility of its being fire ; and 
the explanation of the element of the torment is, that it 
is to the mind, what fire is to the body, and this is further 
defined to be remorse of conscience. 

If it be literal fire, we are referred to two instances re- 
corded in the Bible, which are supposed to prove that fire 
may burn continually and not consume the victims upon 
which it preys ; but let us examine and see if even these, 
the only passages in all the Bible supposed to teach such 



Socrates and Plato. — Which? 27 

an unscientific and unphilosophic idea, are indeed perti- 
nent to the argument. One of these is the case of the 
burning bush Moses saw in the desert, near Mount Horeb: 
" And the angel of the Lord appeared unto him in a 
flame of fire, and in the midst of a bush ; and he looked > 
and behold, the bush burned with fire, and the bush was 
not consumed. And Moses said, I will now turn aside, 
and see this great sight, why the bush is not burnt." — Ex. 
hi, 2, 3. The question is, why was not the bush con- 
sumed or burnt ? We answer, because the Immortal God 
was in it, called the angel of the Lord, but which the 
whole passage shows was God himself. He restrained the 
action of the fire so that it could neither harm the bush 
or himself, and if the flame should have never ceased, still 
it would have been no instrument of injury to God or the 
bush, so let the flame and the smoke ascend up forever 
and ever, still immortal things or beings could not be con- 
sumed, burnt or injured, any more than though surround- 
ed by common atmospheric air. But this is exactly the 
opposite fact with regard to the wicked, for God not only 
does not exert His power to preserve them from burning, 
but kindles the fires for the very purpose, and declares 
they shall not be restrained ; but that they will consume 
His enemies, root and branch, reducing them to ashes and 
smoke. 

The other instance, is that of the three Hebrew children 
who were cast into- the fiery furnace by Nebuchadnezzar, 
as follows: a Then these three men were bound in their 
coats, their hosen, and their hats, and their other gar- 
ments, and were cast into the midst of the burning, fiery 
furnace. Because the furnace was exceeding hot, the 
flame of the fire slew those men that took up Shadrach, 



28 Christ and Paul ; or, 

Meshach and Abednego. Then the king was astonished, 
and said unto his counsellors, did not we cast three men, 
bound, into the midst of the fire, and lo, I see four men, 
loose, walking in the midst of the fire, and they have no 
hurt ; and the form of the fourth is like the Son of God. 
Then Nebuchadnezzar came near to the mouth of the 
burning, fiery furnace, and cried, ye servants of the most 
high God, come forth; and they came forth from the 
midst of the fire. And the king's counsellors, being gath- 
ered together, saw these men, upon whose bodies the fire 
had no power, nor was an hair of their head singed, neith- 
er were their coats changed, nor had the smell of fire 
passed on them.'^ — Dan. iii. Here was intense fire, but it 
had no power to burn, or hurt these men ; not even their 
garments ; it produced not so small an effect as even to 
singe a hair or leave a smell of burning. The reason was, 
there was a Being in the flames with them, who had the 
power to restrain the devouring element, and render the 
men, and even their garments, as perfectly invulnerable in 
the midst of the raging flames as though it had been a 
cool breeze of air; and they could breathe the one as well 
as the other ; and if the fire had continued without end, 
still its effect would have been the same ; not a pang of 
pain or sensation of punishment would they have experi- 
enced to all eternity. In fact, these men, for the time 
"being, were just as though they were immortal ; perfect 
proof against any instrument, or agency of destruction, 
pain or death. Here we see that, instead of this case 
containing any evidence in favor of the nature of future 
punishment upon immortal beings, by material agents, it 
gives us positive argument to the contrary. Hence, the 
advocates of future punishment of immortal beings, by 
lire, need not admit even of the possibility of its being 



Socrates and Plato. — Which? 29. 

true, for it is unphilosophical to suppose that any corpo- 
rial instruments can produce the least effect upon im- 
mortal nature, from which we reach the conclusion, that 
there is no future punishment upon this principle possible,, 
even for a moment. 



The Punishment, a Guilty Conscience, Untenable, 
and Absurd. 

But it is claimed that what fire is to the material, mor- 
tal body, remorse of conscience is to the immortal mind, 
and in this, future punishment consists. If such is the 
fact, then it matters not where the place is, or what is the 
environment, or associates ; and we will suppose the pres- 
ent world to be its theatre ; and there is not, probably, a 
planet in all God's universe, wherein there is an equal de- 
gree of physical derangement. Now, then, we will sup- 
pose the judgment has passed, and the world remaining 
just as it is at present, and all the wicked, who have ever 
lived and died, are given this as their eternal abode. 

The first impression among these men, will, perhaps, be 
a realization of the loss they have sustained. The right- 
eous have a better abode, and evidently surrounded by 
greater sources of happiness than they have, or can ever 
hope to have, and for which they are conscious they have 
no fitness and no hope of acquiring, and understand per- 
fectly well that their destiny is unalterably fixed, which 
no tears, sorrow, regret, repentance or reformation can 
ever change, or in the least affect. Now, would it not be 
the most childish nonsense to suppose these men, knowing 
what they now know, would sit down, and grieve and 
whine forever, about that which they know could never be 
changed ? No sane man acts thus, even in the present 



30 Christ and Paul ; or, 

world when he meets with losses, having so short a time 
to live, in which to repair the misfortune, and much 
less is it conceivable in a world of life and immortality 
which they now possess. The question now arises, what 
is the nature of our condition ; what kind of a constitu- 
tion have we, and what can we make the world, so that it 
will be in the greatest degree conducive to our happiness ? 
The first fundamental fact realized, is, that they are all im- 
mortal, in both soul and body, and hence, cannot be sick, 
or have the least physical pain, or in the least degree be 
injured by other wicked men, or devils, if they had the 
motive or disposition to do so, knowing that no such 
effects can be produced upon their fellow immortals. 
Here is endless health, instead of almost continual suffer- 
ing experienced in the world, when they were inhabitants 
of it before. What a glorious change is this ; who would 
not accept it if God should make the offer now ? 

In the next place, there is to be no more parting with 
friends ; death has passed away forever. We can even 
conceive that those who had friends in heaven would wish 
them back again in their own company. Another de- 
sirable bestowment, growing out of eternal life, is that 
there is no motive for one man to cheat another, as eter- 
nity lies equally before all, in which everything wished for 
may be acquired. In the passed world, it was the hurry 
to become rich, owing to the shortness of human life, that 
made men selfish and induced them to take the advantage 
of each other. Another troublesome element experienced 
in the old world, was a conscious moral responsibility to 
God, and a fearful apprehension of the consequences of 
disobedience ; but this, also, has passed, and no inhabit- 
ant of the earth is ever again to be called in question by 
his Maker, do what he may; and to suppose such men 



Socrates and Plato. — Which? 31 

would tantalize and torment each other mentally, would 
be to reduce them to the level of idiots, which another 
phase of the system contradicts, by declaring that they 
know vastly more than when in the former, temporary 
life. 

This Hypothesis Offers Great Reward Instead 
of Punishment. 

Their immortality also supposes that the earth will 
yield everything its inhabitants need. Indeed, they can 
have no absolute necessities ; for if they did not eat they 
would not die, as immortal beings cannot die, and if they 
did not drink they could not famish, for this would sup- 
pose them mortal ; and if it would enhance their happi- 
ness, they would till the ground and cultivate the soil. 
O, what a beautiful world would this be made, having 
eternity in which to work, there would not be a spot that 
would not be made to bloom and blossom like the garden 
of paradise, every thing and condition w T hich in any wise 
could be made to increase happiness and pleasure, would 
be done. Such is all the hell the system of a guilty con- 
science, philosophically admits. 

Suppose now, the proposition should be made to the 
present sinful inhabitants of the world, of changing them 
into immortal beings, body as well as soul, and also to call 
back from the grave all their acquaintances and friends 
who had died, to take and to hold endless possession 
of the world, just as it is, would any but idiots refuse com- 
pliance ? and yet, this would be voting the whole Godless 
human family into all the hell the remorse punishment 
allows. Just give man eternal life, and he is beyond the 
reach ef every want, every liability, every form of depriva- 



32 Christ and Paul; or, 

tion, or degree of suffering. Hence, eternal life is made 
the glorious reward of righteousness, but from which the 
wicked are to be forever excluded. " They shall not see 
life; but the wrath of God abideth on them," imprisoned 
already, awaiting the execution of the second death. 

Here we have the various systems of future punishment, 
called " theology.' ' And how can they, or any of them, ap- 
peal to the fears of any intelligent mind. Burns said : 

"The fear of hell's the hangman's whip, 
To keep the wretch in order." 

But these explanations of hell, and especially those of 
ever-living torments, can produce no such effect upon 
the wretch. It is like the fabrication that at first was 
believed, but as the narrator began to pile up his extrav- 
agancies, all was rejected as impossible of credibility. 
This hypothesis of future punishment we cannot but see is 
in the widest contrast to that revealed in the Bible, which 
is so clear and palpable that it needs no explanation — no 
interpretation, and every attempt only serves to confuse 
and destroy its practical force upon the sinner. As the 
advocates of the endless conscious-torment theory really 
offer future reward to the sinner, thus holding out the 
glorious prize of eternal life to man, whether he remains 
a sinner or not, whether he serves God or satan, they 
should be the last to cry out against the Pagan theory of 
restoration, or that of no punishment at all. 

The True Hypothesis Extinction of Conscious 

Being. 

The fourth hypothesis of future punishment proposes 
the utter extinction of the wicked, depriving them of life 



Socrates and Plato. — Which? 33 

and conscious existence, which carries with it every pos- 
sible enjoyment, or power for evil. By the careful perusal 
of this little book, it cannot fail to be seen that we give no 
explanation, or change a single word of Scripture, or even 
introduce a single other rendering of a word not contained 
in our common version. For the last thirty years we have 
not heard a minister give another version of a text of 
Scripture, in vindication of a doctrine, than that the new 
idea was in direct conflict with Bible truth, found in other 
passages in which that particular word was not used, so that 
we set it down, as a rule, that the more a man changes our 
translation, the more error he has to promulgate. Neith- 
er have we written this book for the scholar ; but in a 
plain, popular manner, adapted it to the common people, 
who always hear truth gladly, because they can under- 
stand it, while reputation and pride of opinion often mas- 
ters the good sense of the popular scholar, and leads him 
into darkness and fatal- error. Many of these very men 
w T ill admit the truth of doctrines, in private conversation, 
but have not the moral courage to preach them in public, 
and we venture to remark that were the ministers of to- 
day to abandon their heathen dogmas of natural immor- 
tality and its long train of heresies, that there is scarcely 
a church membership in the country w T hich would not fol- 
low his teaching ; and if this be so, O, what a responsibil- 
ity are they incurring. Many of these seem to have no 
misgivings in quoting the opinions of Socrates and Plato, 
in preference to the doctrines of Christ and Paul. Well 
might the Prophet exclaim, when beholding this picture 
in holy vision, " But they are not valiant for the truth 
upon the earth/' — Jer. ix, 3. And also that of the Apos- 
tle Paul, " Ever learning, and never able to come to the 
knowledge of the truth." 



34 Christ and Paul; or, 



The Questions Dividing the Subject, Sin and 
Death. 

The subject of future punishment naturally divides itself 
into three questions. The fact of punishment, its nature, 
and its duration ; but as we propose to discuss it, the an- 
swer to one of these questions will be seen to involve that 
of the others, and which is indicated in the words, " That 
thou shouldst destroy them which destroy the earth."— 
Rev. ix, 1 8. Here is presented the issue of the great con- 
flict between right and wrong, truth and error, God and 
sin. " God made man upright, but he has sought out 
many inventions." God made the devil an angel of light, 
but he made himself a demon of darkness. The devil 
introduced sin into the world, and death came in conse- 
quence. " Therefore, as by one man, sin entered into 
the world, and death by sin ; and so, death passed upon 
all men, for that all have sinned." — Rom. v, 12. And so 
the world that was made with all the elements of life and 
beauty, has been converted into one huge grave-yard, 
and its inhabitants into one long, sad, funeral procession. 
" Death reigned from Adam to Moses, even over them 
that had not sinned after the similitude of Adam's trans- 
gression." — Rom. v., 14. 

Twice has God been compelled to curse the earth itself 
for man's sake, not in anger, or in punishment, as we con- 
ceive, but as a necessity, in order to the accomplishment 
of the purpose for which He made it and its inhabitants. 
When we use the word compelled, we wish to have it un- 
derstood that we hold to the principle as a philosophic 
necessity, that whatever God has done in the original ere- 



Socrates and Plato. — Which? 35 

ation of the world and its inhabitants, and with them 
since, He was compelled to do, in order to accomplish His 
purpose, and it seems to us that any other view limits His 
wisdom to the standard of an experimenter, which its dis- 
play in the construction of the universe most completely 
refutes; the destroyers, therefore, have virtually been 
God's opposers. 

The history of the first curse is recorded in Gen. iii, 17 
— 20 : " And unto Adam He said, because thou hast hark- 
ened unto the voice of thy wife, and hast eaten of the tree 
of which I commanded thee, saying, thou shalt not eat of 
it ; cursed is the ground for thy sake ; in sorrow shalt thou 
eat of it all the days of thy life; thorns also and thistles 
shall it bring forth to thee ; and thou shalt eat the herb of 
the field ; in the sweat of thy face shalt thou eat bread, 
till thou return unto the ground, for out of it wast thou 
taken, for dust thou art, and unto dust shalt thou return." 

Why the World was Cursed. 

The object for thus cursing the ground, was to make it 
a laborious habitation for man, that he might be induced 
the easier to seek eternal life, and a corresponding inher- 
itance in God's new world, " The New Heaven and the 
New Earth." But though its soil was thus far deranged, 
yet was it so luxuriant and beautiful that when God sent 
Noah, "A preacher of righteousness," with the gospel 
message, to invite men to become candidates for His eter- 
nal empire, it almost utterly failed of its purpose ; they 
turned a deaf ear to it, and acted as though they said, we 
have a world good enough already ; our average life now 
is about five hundred years, and with almost perfect health ; 
and they universally turned away from God and obliged 



36 Christ and Paul ; or, 

Him to change the order of things, or submit to a failure 
in obtaining loving, loyal inhabitants for His new world, 
the only object for which He keeps this in existence. His 
determination, therefore, is thus recorded : " And God 
saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, 
and that every imagination of the thoughts of his heart 
was only evil continually, and it repented the Lord that 
He had made man on the earth, and it grieved Him at 
His heart. And the Lord said, I will destroy man whom 
I have created, from the face of the earth ; both man and 
beast, and the creeping thing, and the fowls of the air, for 
it repenteth me that I have made them." — Gen. vi, 5 — 7. 
The deluge so far destroyed the earth, in comparison with 
that which had existed before, that Peter speaks of it thus : 
" For this they willingly are ignorant of, that by the Word 
of God the heavens were of old, and the earth stand- 
ing out of the water and in the water ; whereby, the world 
that then was, being overflowed with water, perished." — 2 
Pet. iii, 5, 6. It is certain that this declaration would not 
be true, if the present world, in its physical, surface fea- 
tures, bore any considerable likeness to that which had ex- 
isted before. So broken and destroyed was its crust, with 
three-fourths of its surface covered with briny oceans, 
and no inconsiderable portion of the remainder, consist- 
ing of huge mountains, barren rocks, sandy deserts and 
myasmatic swamps, which so impregnated the air, that al- 
most immediately after the flood the longevity of man was 
cut down to three score years and ten. In God's estima- 
tion, the earth was now so deranged, and the original de- 
stroyed, that He declared He would no more curse the 
ground, and 'that men would now be willing to comply 
with the conditions upon which an inheritance in the New 
Heavens and New Earth was offered, and which is demon- 



Socrates and Plato. — Which? 37 

strated by the history of the Christian Church since. The 
history of the catastrophy is recorded thus : " In the six 
hundredth year of Noah's life, in the second month, the 
seventh day of the month, the same day were all the foun- 
tains of the great deep broken up (the entire crust of the 
earth,) and the windows of heaven were opened, and the 
rain fell upon the earth forty days and forty nights." — 
Gen. vii, 11 — 13. After the subsidence of the flood we 
have the following description and the expressed deter- 
mination to which we have referred : " And Noah went 
forth, and his sons, and his wife, and his sons' wives with 
him ; every beast, every creeping thing, and every fowl, 
and whatsoever creepeth upon the earth, after their kinds, 
went forth out of the ark. And Noah builded an altar 
unto the Lord, and took of every clean beast, and every 
clean fowl, and offered burnt offerings on the altar. And 
the Lord smelled a sweet savor ; and the Lord said in His 
heart. I will not again curse the ground any more for 
man's sake ; for the imagination of man's heart is evil 
from his youth ; neither will I again smite any more every- 
thing living, as I have done ; while the earth remaineth, 
seed time and harvest, cold and heat, summer and winter, 
and day and night, shall not cease." — viii, 18 — 22. 

The Devil, Sinners, and Sin, Doomed to De- 
struction. 

Now, as the devil introduced sin into the world, and 
death and the curse came as a consequence, therefore he 
is doomed to destruction, and his judge and destroyer is 
to be Jesus Christ in person ; for thus it is written : " For 
as much, then, as the children are partakers of flesh and 
blood, He also himself likewise took part of the same ; 



38 Christ and Paul; or, 

that through death (himself passing through death) He 
might destroy him that had the power of death, that is, the 
devil" — Heb. ii, 14. That this destruction is to be ac- 
complished at the judgment of the great day, is proved by 
the following' Scripture : " And the angels which kept not 
their first estate, but left their own habitation, He hath re- 
served in everlasting chains under darkness unto the judg- 
ment of the great day." — Jude* 6. "For if God spared 
not the angels that sinned, but cast them down to hell,, 
and delivered them unto chains of darkness, to be reserved 
unto judgment," etc. — 2 Pet. ii, 4. Here we see that the 
end of the devil and his angels is destruction, and if it is 
destruction at all, it is everlasting, eternal destruction, ut- 
ter extermination, unless his Maker resurrects him again 
into life, which He has never promised, or threatened to 
do, and if He did, he would be a devil still ; and that would 
only necessitate a second destruction; for if he is in con- 
scious existence, his implacable will is continual hostility 
to the will of God, and, therefore, Christ has failed of His 
purpose and satan has triumphed ; then " The seed of the 
woman has failed to bruise the serpent's head ; " instead of 
which, he has given him the glorious boon of eternal life, 
which is only promised to the saints as the reward of faith 
and obedience. In a word, the devil lives to defy God 
Almighty to His face ; but the silly notion is founded on 
the absurdity that God cannot destroy that which He has 
made ; He is unable to unmake what He has made ; a feat 
of which every living mail and animal is capable. 

Not only is the devil doomed to destruction, but his 
works also are to be swept out of existence, and that 
Christ is committed to its accomplishment is revealed 
thus : " He that commiteth sin is of the devil ; for the 
devil sinneth from the beginning. For this purpose the 



Socrates and Plato. — Which? 39 

Son of God was manifested, that He might destroy the 
works of the devil/' — 1 John iii, 8. That the wicked are 
the peculiar works of the devil, indeed, his servants, his 
children, is shown by Christ's own words, thus : " Why do 
ye not understand my speech ? Ye are of your father, the 
devil, and the lusts of your father ye will do ; he was a 
murderer from the beginning (of the world), and abode 
not in the truth, (he did not continue to abide in the 
truth) because there is no truth in him. When he spak- 
eth a lie, he spaketh of his own (own self) ; for he is a 
liar, and the father of it." — John viii, 43 — 44. 

Here we see that the doom of the wicked, whom the 
devil has made his servants, his children, are therefore the 
masterpiece of his infernal work, is also that of destruc- 
tion, and is to be executed by the Son of God at the judg- 
ment of the last great day ; whose sentence is in these 
words : " Depart from Me, ye cursed, into everlasting fire, 
prepared for the devil and his angels. — Matt, xxv, 41. 
The angels of the devil are those whom he sends to do his 
work, whether subordinate, fallen angels, or his human 
children, who are led captive by satan, or his (satan's) 
will. 



Man Lost Everlasting Life when he Sinned. 

That God intended, from the beginning, to deprive sin- 
ners of everlasting life is clearly shown by the following 
history: "And the Lord God said, behold, the man has 
become as one of us, to know good and evil ; and now, 
lest he put forth his hand, and take also of the tree of 
life, and eat, and live forever ; therefore, the Lord God 
sent him forth from the Garden of Eden, to till the ground 
from whence he was taken. So He drove out the man ; 



40 Christ and Paul ; or, 

and He placed at the east end of the Garden of Eden, 
cherubims and a naming sword, which turned every way, 
to keep the way of the tree of life." — Gen. iii, 22 — 24. But 
notwithstanding the precaution taken by God, Adam 
broke through the bars, escaping the vigilance of the 
sleepy cherubims with their flaming sword, and plucked 
the immortal fruit from the tree of life, which gave him 
an immortal soul, and furnished him with such souls foi 
all his posterity. They will, therefore, defeat God's plan, 
and still live forever in their sins ; for no hell-fires or de- 
struction can affect immortal souls. Behold, how heathen 
mythology is made to subvert God's great record of truth. 
Paul explains the everlasting punishment of the wicked, 
thus : " Seeing it is a righteous thing with God to recom- 
pense tribulation to them that trouble you ; and to you 
who are troubled, rest with us, when the Lord Jesus shall 
be revealed from heaven with His mighty angels, in flam- 
ing fire, taking vengeance on them that know not God, 
and that obey not the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ ; 
who shall be punished with everlasting destruction from the 
presence of the Lord, and the glory of His power, when 
He shall come to be glorified in His saints." — 2 Thess. i, 
6 — 10. It is not common to qualify the destruction of the 
wicked as being everlasting, and the reason is obvious ; 
for if destroyed at all, it must be everlasting destruction. 

Destruction Always Without End. 

Indeed, the destruction of anything, is everlasting de- 
struction. A house is destroyed by fire, and it is everlast- 
ing destruction. Another house may be built upon the 
same site, and so much like it that no one could discover 



Socrates and Plato. — Which? 41 

the difference, but it was not the house which was burned. 
This destruction of the whole man, after his resurrection, 
is positively declared by Christ, and refutes the foolish 
idea that He cannot destroy the soul because it is immor- 
tal, or supposed so to be, which if it was, of course it 
would be indestructable. Christ's words are these : " But 
rather fear Him which is able to destroy both soul and 
body in hell." — Matt, x, 28. 

Hell, the Grave, and the Grave of Future 
Punishment. 

This is the hell of future punishment, the lake of fire 
and brimstone, because it is after the wicked had come 
forth to damnation. Death and hell (the grave) had 
given up the dead which were in them, and whosoever 
was not found written in the Lamb's book of life was cast 
into the lake of fire and brimstone. This is the second 
death. Hell, the receptacle of the first death, had been 
emptied by the fiat of God, and they were judged, and 
now cast into the hell of fire and brimstone, the receptacle 
of the second death. Here death itself dies. " The last 
enemy that shall be destroyed, is death." — 1 Cor. xv, 16. 
The righteous have eternal life, and the wicked have died 
forever, as a necessity ; therefore, death is destroyed, as 
it hath nothing more upon which to prey. The final set- 
tlement has been made ; the wicked have done the devil's 
work and have received his wages. " The wages of sin 
is death/' They have sown to the flesh, and have reaped 
the harvest of corruption. The righteous have sown to 
the spirit, and of the spirit have reaped everlasting life. 
While the wages of sin has been death to the wicked, the 



42 Christ and Paul ; or, 

gift of God has been eternal life to the righteous, through 
our Lord Jesus Christ. What the one class has gained, 
the other has lost. 

" Because I have called, and ye have refused ; I have 
stretched out my hand and no man regarded ; ye have set 
at naught all my counsel, and would none of my reproof; 
I also will laugh at your calamity ; I will mock when your 
fear cometh ; when your fear cometh as desolation, and 
your destruction cometh as a whirlwind ; when distress 
and anguish cometh upon you ; then shall they call upon 
me, but I will not answer; they will seek me, but shall 
not find me." — Prov. i, 24 — 28. " He that, being often re- 
proved, hardeneth his neck, shall suddenly be destroyed, 
and that without remedy." — xxix, 1. Here is the de- 
struction again qualified. It is without remedy, and there- 
fore eternal. Eternal life is the preventive, but no rem- 
edy. The idea of remedy, after destruction, is absurd. 

" A fire is kindled in Mine anger, and shall burn unto 
the lowest hell, and shall consume the earth, and set on 
fire the foundations of the mountains. I will spend Mine 
arrows upon them, they shall be devoured with burning 
heat and with bitter destruction." — Deut. xxxii, 22, 24. 



The Terms Describing the Punishment. 

Mark the terms used to express the punishment of the 
wicked : " Consumed, devoured, with burning heat and bit- 
ter destruction." The Pagan theory is, that they shall be 
preserved forever from destruction, because they are im- 
mortal. " But the wicked shall perish, and the enemies of 
the Lord shall be as the fat of lambs ; they shall consume; 



Socrates and Plato. — Which? 43 

into smoke shall they consume away." — Ps. xxxvii, 20. 
They are as perishable as the fat of lambs, and like it shall 
they consume away. Now, if a thing or being consumes, 
then it will come to naught, unless the consumption is ar- 
rested ; but for this consumption, there is no remedy. " I 
will utterly consume all things from off the land, saith the 
Lord. I will consume man and beast ; I will consume 
the fowls of the heaven, and the fishes of the sea, and the 
stumbling blocks with the wicked." — Zeph. i, 2, 3. As 
the heavens and the earth are to be burned up, of course 
the inhabitants of the sea and air are also to be destroyed. 
u For as the New Heavens and the New Earth, which I 
will make, shall remain before me, saith the Lord, so shall 
your seed and your name remain. And it shall come to 
pass that all flesh shall come and worship before me, saith 
the Lord, and they shall go forth, and look upon the car* 
casses ot the men that have transgressed against me ; for 
their worm shall not die, neither shall their fire be 
quenched ; and they shall be an abhorring unto all flesh." 
— Isa. lxvi, 22, 24. 



The Place where the Wicked were Consumed an 
Eternal Monument. 

It will be observed that this is the " hell-fire " in which 
the wicked have been consumed, and nothing but car- 
casses left. It will also be seen that the place was in the 
New Heavens and New Earth which is to be made. From 
this and other parallel passages we propose to introduce, 
it will be seen that this spot where the wicked had been 
extinguished, is to remain a standing monument forever 



44 Christ and Paul ; or, 

of God's indignation against sin. The saints are to go 
forth and look upon the carcasses of the transgressors, and 
be reminded of the dread effects of opposition to the will 
of God, and we do not consider it unlikely, or an unnec- 
essary precaution to take, in order to prevent a repetition 
of the experiment of the first Adam. It was not the soul, 
the living being, that had been cast into hell-fire, that thus 
remained, for these had been consumed to mere dead 
carcasses, and we see by other passages, that they had 
been reduced by fires, beyond the carcasses, to mere dead 
ashes and smoke. The fires and worms of decomposition 
had not been arrested, and had therefore accomplished 
the work of utter destruction. This was in accordance 
with the original decree, " Of dust thou art, and unto 
dust shalt thou return." It is not declared, or even im- 
plied, that the fires had not gone out of their own accord, 
when they had spent their fury upon the wicked, nor that 
the worms of corruption had not destroyed the living 
body; indeed, these were reduced to carcasses; and how 
could the worms be immortal, and the fires eternal, when 
the men upon whom they had preyed were reduced to 
nothing but fleshless carcasses ? And if a man is reduced 
to a carcass, he is beyond the further reach of suffering, 
and should the worms continue to live, and the fires to 
burn, there would be no further torment to the dead car- 
cass. The only idea taught in this language, so often re- 
peated both in the Old and New Testaments, is, that when 
God kindles fires, or lets loose other instruments of de- 
struction, no power can arrest their ravages until the work 
is complete ; it is, therefore, " Everlasting fire," perfect 
consumption, and the result, eternal destruction, " Pun- 
ished with everlasting destruction." — Paul. 



Socrates and Plato. — Which? 45 



Wicked Men and Devils are to be Punished on 
the Earth. 

There is not the least intimation in all the Bible, that 
the wicked, either men or devils, are to be taken from the 
earth to receive judgment or punishment; on the con- 
trary, the Judge and punisher is to come to the earth for 
that purpose. " Lo, I come, and My reward is with Me, 
and My work before Me." " Then shall He reward every 
man according to his works, whether they be good 
or bad." 

The Location of Hell. 

The hell of the wicked, the lake of fire and brimstone, 
to be prepared for the devil and his angels (his servants,) 
is to be on the earth, and its locality is not only fixed, but 
revealed in the Bible, just as definitely as that of Jerusa- 
lem. The following is a part of the evidence upon this 
subject : " And he (king Josiah) defiled (destroyed) Toph- 
et, which is in the valley of the children of Hinnom, 
that no man might make his son or his daughter to pass 
through the valley to Molech." The valley of the son 
of Hinnom was in the land of Edom, south of Jerusalem. 
—2 Kings xxiii, 10. The fact that here the idolatrous 
Jews, mixing with the heathen, kept continual fires burn- 
ing, and consumed human beings as sacrifices, making it 
a place of human slaughter, so much resembling hell, was 
the reason why God selected it, and used it to impress 
upon the mind an approximate conception of what hell 



46. Christ and Paul; or, 

will be and its fires do. This was only the type, and of 
small dimension ; but we shall see that it will be enlarged 
to meet the necessities, and that its name is changed from 
Tophet to a Place of Slaughter. We may remark that it 
will not take, a place as large as one-fourth of the State of 
New York to hold all the wicked of the earth ; we mean 
all those who are, or will be, candidates for this destruc- 
tion ; for we have elsewhere shown that it is limited to 
those who have had the light of the gospel, and persistent- 
ly and finally rejected its salvation, its offer of eternal life. 
'" And they have built the high places of Tophet, which is 
in the valley of the son of Hinnom, to burn their sons and 
their daughters in the fire, which I commanded them not, 
neither came it into My heart ; therefore, behold, the days 
come, saith the Lord, that it shall no more be called Toph- 
et, nor the valley of the son of Hinnom, but the valley 
of Slaughter; for they shall bury in Tophet till there is no 
place, and the carcasses of this people shall be meat for 
the fowls of the heaven, and for the beasts of the earth ; 
and none shall fray them away." — Jer. vii, 31 — 33. 

" Behold, the Lord cometh from far, burning with anger, 
and the burden thereof is heavy ; His lips are full of in- 
dignation, and His tongue as a devouring fire, and His 
breath as an overflowing stream, shall reach to the midst 
of the neck, and the Lord shall cause His glorious voice 
to be heard, and shall show the lighting down of His 
arm, with the indignation of His anger and with the flame 
of a devouring fire, with scattering tempest, and hail- 
stones ; for Tophet is ordained of old ; yea, for the king 
it is prepared ; the pile thereof is fire and much wood, and 
the breath of the Lord, like a stream of brimstone, doth 
kindle it* 1 — Isa. xxx, 27, 28, 30, 33. Here, hell is to 
be made ; its fires kindled by the breath of God like a 



Socrates and Plato. — Which? 47 

stream of brimstone, and it is in the day when He cometh 
in His indignation ; consequently, it does not now exist. 
It is prepared for the king, as well as the lowest of the 
wicked, and the punishment is to be upon the earth. 
" And it shall come to pass in that day, that the Lord 
shall punish the host of the high ones that are on high, 
and the kings of the earth upon the earth. " — Isa. xxiv, 21. 
" Come near, ye nations ; and hearken, ye people ; let the 
earth hear, and all that is therein ; the world, and all 
things that come forth of it, (here God issues a universal 
proclamation, setting forth His determination with the 
wicked ; well will it be for those who take timely heed) for 
the indignation of the Lord is upon all nations, and His 
fury upon all their armies ; (now the Prophet sees what 
will be the end, and continues,) He hath utterly destroyed 
them ; He hath delivered them to the slaughter ; (it will 
be remembered that Tophet was to be called a place of 
slaughter) their slain also shall be cast out, and their stink 
shall come up out of their carcasses, and the mountains 
shall be melted with their blood. (It will add inten- 
sity to the fires.) And all the host of heaven shall be dis- 
solved, and the heavens shall be rolled together as a 
scroll, and all the host shall fall down, as the leaf falleth 
off from the vine, or as a falling fig from the fig-tree; 
(this shows that it is the last great day of the world's dis- 
solution,) for My sword shall be bathed in heaven ; be- 
hold, it shall come down upon the land of Idumea, (the 
Greek name for Edom, in which is the valley of the son 
of Hinnom,) and upon the people of My curse, to judg- 
ment. The sword of the Lord is filled with blood ; it is 
made fat with fatness, and with the blood of lambs and 
goats, with the fat of the kidneys of rams ; (this consump- 
tion of the wicked was typified by burning the beasts in 



48 Christ and Paul ; or, 

sacrifice after they were slaughtered, and here is the anti- 
type,) for the Lord hath a great sacrifice in Bozrah, (the 
capitol of Edom, as we see by chapter lxi, i,) and a great 
slaughter in the land of Idumea ; and the unicorns shall 
come down with them, and the bullocks with the bulls ; 
and their land shall be soaked with blood, and their dust 
made fat with fatness ; for it is the day of the Lord's ven- 
geance, and the year of recompenses for the controversy 
of Zion ; and the streams thereof shall be turned into 
pitch, and the dust thereof into brimstone, and the land 
thereof shall become burning pitch ; (nothing is easier 
than for God to change the gases of the dust and stones 
into brimstone, and " His breath like a stream of brim- 
stone is to kindle it,") it shall not be quenched night nor 
day; (no power shall interfere to put out the fires and 
rescue the victims alive,) the smoke thereof shall go up 
forever ; (as long as there is a vestige of a human being or 
devil to burn.) From generation to generation it shall lie 
waste ; none shall pass through it forever and ever, (The 
fires, however, have gone out, as the description which is 
here given clearly proves,) but the Cormorant and the 
Bittern shall possess it ; the Owl also and the Raven shall 
dwell in it; (how could the birds dwell in it if the fires 
had not gone out ?) and He shall stretch out upon it the 
line of confusion, and the stones of emptiness. They 
shall call the nobles to the kingdom, but none shall be 
there, and all her princes shall be nothing. (They were 
put there ; now mark, they are nothing. If this does not 
express utter destruction, then words are without mean- 
ing.) And thorns shall come up in her palaces, nettles 
and brambles in the fortresses thereof; and it shall be an 
habitation of dragons, and a court for owls ; the wild 
beasts of the desert shall also meet with the wild beasts of 



Socrates and Plato. — Which? 49 

the island, and the Satyr shall cry to his fellow ; the Screech 
Owl also shall rest there, and find for herself a place of 
rest ; there shall the Great Owl make her nest, and lay, and 
hatch, and gather under her shadow ; there shall the vul- 
tures also be gathered, every one with her mate. Seek ye 
out of the Book of the Lord, and read, no one of these 
shall fail." — Isa. xxxiv. 



The Quenchless Fires go out. 

It is easy to see that no word could more conclusively 
prove that the quenchless fires, and God's instruments of 
corruption and destruction had ceased with the existence 
of the wicked, than this representation of plants and an- 
imals, reproducing from generation to generation, upon the 
very spot where the lake of fire and brimstone had once 
consumed the wicked. Isaiah has another vision of the 
Great Christ, the destroyer of the destroyers, after He had 
accomplished the work of exterminating the devil and his 
work, in the land of Edom, the great valley of slaughter, as 
follows : " Who is this that cometh from Edom, with dyed 
garments from Bozrah ; this that is glorious in his apparel, 
traveling in the greatness of his strength ? (Then comes 
the answer.) I that speaketh in righteousness , mighty to 
save. (If He is mighty to save His saints, which takes 
place at the same time, He is also mighty to destroy His 
enemies.) Wherefore art thou red in thine apparel, and thy 
garments like him that treadeth in the wine-fat ? I have 
trodden the wine-press alone, and of the people there was 
none with Me, (it is Christ's work alone, to destroy the devil 
and his works) for I will tread them in mine anger, and 
trample them in My fury ; and their blood shall be sprink- 
led upon My garments, and I will stain all My raiment ; 



50 Christ and Paul ; or, 

for the day of vengeance is in mine heart, and the year of 
My redeemed is come. And I looked, and there was none 
to help ; and I wondered that there was none to uphold ; 
therefore, mine own arm brought salvation unto Me, and 
my fury it upheld Me. And I will tread down the people 
in mine anger, and make them drink in My fury, and I 
will bring down their strength to the earth." — Isa. lxiii, i 
—6. Such a scene as this does not depend upon any par- 
ticular word, the meaning of which might be doubtful, as 
to the certainty and duration of the punishment of the 
wicked ; but the whole representation is one of absolute 
slaughter ; it is the slaughter of men, not spirits, including 
the wicked of all time. " He that soweth to the flesh shall 
of the flesh reap corruption." They had been called from 
their graves, just as they had died, "to shame and ever- 
lasting contempt." They have had their resurrection to 
damnation. While the righteous dead have been raised 
to incorruption, the wicked have reaped the opposite 
harvest. " For whatsoever a man soweth, that shall he 
also reap; be not deceived; God is not mocked; for he 
that soweth to his flesh, shall of the flesh reap corruption ; 
but he that soweth to the spirit, shall of the spirit reap 
life everlasting." — Gal. vi, 7, 8. 

The Great Contest Between Christ and the 
Wicked at the Last Day. 

This scene declared to the Prophet was also shown 
by Christ to the Revelator, and so connected with the 
great harvest, gathered by the angels at His command, 
with the concurrent events at the end of the world, that 
leaves no possibility of honest misunderstanding. " And 
I saw heaven opened ; and behold, a white horse ; and 



Socrates and Plato.— Which? 51 

He that sat upon him was called Faithful and True, and 
in righteousness He doth judge and make war. His 
eyes were as a flame of fire, and on His head were many 
crowns ; and He had a name written, that no man knew 
but He himself; and He was clothed with a vesture 
dipped in blood, and His name is called the Word of 
God. (This is recorded in the first of John's gospel, 
"In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was 
with God, and the Word was God." So we see that this 
Word of God was God himself.) And the armies which 
were in heaven followed Him upon white horses, clothed 
in fine linen, white and clean ; and out of His mouth 
goeth a sharp sword, that with it He should smite the 
nations ; and He shall rule them with a rod of iron ; and 
He treadeth the wine-press of the fierceness and wrath of 
Almighty God ; and He hath on His vesture, and on His 
thigh, a name written, King of kings, and Lord of lords. 
And I saw an angel standing in the sun, and he cried with 
a loud voice, saying to all the fowls that fly in the midst 
of heaven, come and gather yourselves together unto the 
supper of the Great God, that ye may eat the flesh of 
kings, and the flesh of captains, and the flesh of mighty 
men ; and the flesh of horses, and them that sit on them ; 
and the flesh of men, both free and bond, both small and 
great. (The birds of prey feast upon the slaughtered 
dead ; the worms riot in the flesh of the mighty, until the 
fires of God are kindled, which consumes all to ashes and 
smoke.) And I saw the beast, and the kings of the earth, 
and their armies, gathered together, to make war against 
Hirn that sat upon the horse, and against His army ; and 
the beast was taken, and with him the false prophet that 
wrought miracles before him, with which he deceived them 
that had received the mark of the beast, and them that 



52 Christ and Paul ; or, 

worshiped his image. These both were cast alive into a 
lake of fire, burning with brimstone ; and the remnant 
were slain with the sword of Him that sat upon the horse, 
which sword proceeded out of His mouth ; and all the 
fowls were filled with their flesh." — Rev. xix, n — 21. 
"And I looked; and behold, a white cloud; upon the 
cloud one sat like unto the Son of Man, having on His 
head a golden crown, and in His hand a sharp sickle ; 
and another came out of the temple, crying with a loud 
voice to Him that sat on the cloud, thrust in thy sharp 
sickle and reap, for the time is come for thee to reap, 
for the harvest of the earth is ripe. And He that sat 
on the cloud thrust in His sickle on the earth, and the 
earth was reaped. And another angel came out of the 
temple,, which is in heaven, he also having a sharp sickle. 
And another came out from the altar, which had. power 
over fire; and he cried with a loud cry to him that had 
the sharp sickle, saying, thrust in thy sharp sickle and 
gather the clusters of the vine of the earth, for her grapes 
are fully ripe ; and the angel thrust in his sickle into the 
earth, and gathered the vine of the earth, and cast it into 
the great wine-press of the wrath of God ; and the wine- 
press was trodden without the city, and blood came out 
of the wine-press even unto the horse-bridles, by the space 
of a thousand and six hundred furlongs," — Chapter xiv r 
14 — 20. 

Here is a great slaughter-yard, in which God has de- 
creed to slay His enemies. Behold the dreadful carnage, 
and after which, to kindle it into a vast lake of fire and 
brimstone, and consume them all to ashes. Its dimen- 
sions, as here given, is two hundred square miles. The 
valley of the son of Hinnom was thus enlarged, according* 
to the prediction of Isaiah. Into this great wine-press of 



Socrates and Plato. — Which? 53 

the wrath of God the wicked, " The vine of the earth," 
around which their heart's affections had entwined, are 
gathered into clusters, bound in bundles by the harvest 
angels, cast into it and burned. If any sentimental skep- 
tic or moralizing rejector of the Word of God dissents 
from such suffering or slaughter of human beings, as being 
inconsistent with the character of God, we refer him to 
the history of the human species, for an answer. Behold, 
the two hundred and sixteen billions of mankind who 
have lived and died, half of them in perfect innocence, in 
all the forms of agony and suffering to which it is possible 
to subject men. Now, if God has thus subjected the life 
of the world, for the accomplishment of His revealed pur- 
pose, to the painful suffering of one death, why not a fourth 
of these to a second death, for the same reason ? And 
that these, too, are the most guilty of all, having had and 
rejected the offer of eternal life, why cannot God cause 
these to live again and be thus disposed of, so that they 
would not escape with only the suffering of the first death, 
shared equally by the most innocent inhabitants of the 
world ? Surely, what has been, may be again. 

The Infliction of the "Second Death." 

The infliction of this death, the place of its execution, 
and the instruments to be employed, are presented again 
by the Revelator, thus : " And I saw a great white throne, 
and Him that sat on it, from whose face the earth and the 
heaven fled away; and there was found no place for them. 
And I saw the dead, small and great, stand before God ; 
and the books were opened ; and another book was 
opened, which is the Book of Life ; and the dead were 
judged out of those things which were written in the 



54 Christ and Pall ; or, 

books, according to their works. And the sea gave up 
the dead which were in it ; and death and hell delivered 
up the dead which were in them; and they were judged, 
every man according to their works ; and death and hell 
(contents of the grave) were cast into the lake of fire. 
This is the second death, and whosoever was not found 
written in the book of life, was cast into the lake of fire." 
— Rev. xx, ii — 15. 

Here closes the conflict between right and wrong for 
ever; every sinner, whether man or devil, is dead: death 
itself is extinct, having no more life upon which to prey. 
God, the only source of immortality, has conferred the 
hallowed boon upon the saints, and they live for ever. 
Death has ceased to reign. Satanic dominion is no more, 
and the victims of his cruel hate, though his willing sub- 
jects, have shared the same common fate ; Christ has 
triumphed and the reign of immortality begun. 

This subject, Christ presented in a parable to the dis- 
ciples, and here we give His own interpretation, and which 
will be seen to be in perfect corroboration of, and harmony 
with, the description of Isaiah and the Revelator. " Then 
Jesus sent the multitude away, and went into the house ; 
and His disciples came unto Him, saying, declare unto us 
the parable of the tares of the field. He answered and 
said unto them, he that sowed the good seed is the Son of 
Man ; the field is the world ; the good seed are the child- 
ren of the kingdom, but the tares are the children of the 
wicked one ; the enemy that sowed them, is the devil ; the 
harvest, is the end of the world, and the reapers are the 
angels. As, therefore, the tares are gathered and burned 
in the fire, so shall it be in the end ol this world. The 
Son of Man shall send forth His angels, and they shall 
gather out of His kingdom all things that offend, and them 



Socrates and Plato. — Which? 55 

which do iniquity, and shall cast them into a furnace of 
fire ; there shall be wailing and gnashing of teeth. Then 
shall the righteous shine forth as the sun, in the kingdom 
of their Father. Who hath ears to hear, let him hear." — 
Matt, xiii, 36 — 43. 

Surely, such an interpretation needs no other to make 
it understood, and we only desire to call attention to a 
figure, Christ here employs, to show that the wicked are 
consumed, burnt up : " As, therefore, the tares are gath- 
ered and burned in the fire, so shall the wicked be gath- 
ered in the end of this world, and burned. " It is repeat- 
ed in the 49th and 50th verses, thus : " So shall it be at 
the end of this world ; the angels shall come forth, and 
sever the wicked from among the just, and shall cast them 
into the furnace of fire ; there shall be weeping and gnash- 
ing of teeth." Here is Christ's plain teaching, and to the 
effect, that, just as the noxious, vegetable tares are burned 
up in a furnace of fire by the husbandman, so will the 
wicked be cast into a furnace of fire and burned up at the 
end of this world, and the wailing and gnashing of teeth 
consequent upon the burning will last as long as conscious 
existence, and no longer. 

Wicked Wresting of the Scriptures. 

The only way to make out the opposite theory, is to say, 
Christ, I do not believe your teaching, for I hold to the 
heathen doctrine that the soul is immortal, and after the 
resurrection, the body will be immortal also ; and, there- 
fore, it cannot be burned or consumed ; I propose, there- 
fore, to change the language of your parable, and inter- 
pret your interpretation so as to make it suit Plato's 
immortal-soulism, Hence, I say that the fire in which 



56 Christ and Paul; or, 

men gather and burn tares, is figurative fire, that is, no fire 
at all ; and the tares are not burned, but preserved for- 
ever and ever, and you should have understood the use of 
language better than to have made such a representation ; 
at least, you should have given another edition of your 
Book, so that it would harmonize with our dear Plato. 
O Christ, how have they fouled thy Word with their 
feet. 

Scripture Testimony that the Wicked will be 
Destroyed. 

We have seen that the instrument God uses in execut- 
ing this punishment, is called " A flame of devouring 
fire." Plato, however, says he is immortal, and cannot, 
therefore, be devoured. Who is to be believed, God or 
Plato ? The wicked are here represented as having been 
first slain, and then burned till they became " fiothing" 
but the lying vanities of heathen mythology says, the soul 
is immortal, and, therefore, it cannot become " nothing;" 
and modern theology takes sides with the mythology, and, 
of course, against the Book of God. " But the wicked 
shall perish, and the enemies of the Lord, as the fat of 
lambs they shall consume ; into smoke shall they consume 
away." — Ps. xxxiv, 20. What language can express ex- 
tinction of being more perfectly than this ? And it leaves 
the Platonists no alternative but flat denial, as an immortal 
thing cannot consume at all, much less into smoke, or 
the gases of which man is known to be composed. " Let 
the sinners be consumed out of the earth, and let the 
wicked be no more." — Ps. civ, 35. David was a prophet, 
and here is an inspired prayer; will it be answered? 
" For evil doers shall be cut off; but those that wait upon 



Socrates and Plato.— Which? 57 

the Lord, they shall inherit the earth (New Earth;) for yet 
a little while, and the wicked shall not be ; yea, thou shalt 
diligently consider his place, and it shall not be." — Ps. 
xxxvii, 9, 10. What disposition will the heathens make 
of these words. They will be obliged to call in Origen, 
and he will tell them that the words of the Bible must 
never be taken to convey any sensible ideas ; these must be 
found in mysterious allegory ; and in this passage, would 
mean quite the contrary, and should have been translated, 
"Evil doers live forevermore ;" and the reason for this 
rendering of the passage, is, that Plato says the soul is im- 
mortal, and the holy Catholic Church has ever believed 
him, and the holy Catholic Church is infallible. " For 
the day of the Lord is near upon all the heathen, they 
shall be as though they had not been." — Obad. 15, 16. 
Here is God's testimony by another concurring prophet. 
Now, how can ever-living, conscious torment be recon- 
ciled with it ? W 7 hat say the disciples of Socrates to such 
doctrine ? " And now, also the axe is laid unto the root 
of the trees ; therefore, every tree which bringeth not forth 
good fruit, is hewn down, and cast into the fire. Whose 
fan is in His hand, and He will thoroughly purge His 
floor, and gather His wheat into the garner; but He will 
burn up the chaff with unquenchable fire." — Matt, iii, 
10, 12. Here the wicked are no more than chaff, before 
God's quenchless fires ; and again, the heathen theory is in 
direct antagonism, for its immortals, instead of being as 
highly combustable as chaff, are perfect salamanders. 
" The sinners in Zion are afraid ; fearfulness hath surprised 
the hypocrites. Who among us shall dwell with devour- 
ing fire? W^ho among us shall dwell with everlasting 
burnings ?" — Isa. xxxiii, 14. Here the hypocrites are be- 
coming alarmed at teaching heathen doctrines in opposi- 



58 Christ and Paul ; or, 

tion to Christianity, and beginning to seriously ask the 
question, whether, after all, it is possible to dwell with 
everlasting burnings and not be devoured ; and we have 
no doubt but that the controversy upon this subject, now 
so widely spreading, will lead thousands to abandon Plato 
and embrace Christ. " For the Lord God of hosts shall 
make a consumption, even determined in the midst of all 
the land, for yet a little while, and the indignation shall 
cease, and Mine anger in their destruction." — Isa. x, 23, 
25. Now, if God's indignation can only be satisfied with 
the ever-living punishment of the wicked, then His indig- 
nation will never cease, for they will never be destroyed. 
Here again, the teachings of God and Plato are at vari- 
ance : which shall we receive? "He that believeth oa 
the Son, hath everlasting life ; and he that believeth not 
the Son, shall not see life ; but the w r rath of God abideth 
on .him." — John iii, 36. Here is a living unbeliever, and 
his destiny is, that he shall not see life. Now, this must 
mean the temporary resurrection-life of the wicked, in 
order to appear before the judgment-seat of Christ, and to 
end with the second death, or it means eternal life. But 
the instruction of the whole Bible upon this subject is, 
that eternal life is promised to the righteous, and that the 
wicked are to be raised to temporary life ; hence, it is the 
everlasting life which the unbelievers shall not see. 

" And if thy hand offend thee, cut it off; it is better for 
thee to enter into life maimed, than having two hands to go 
into hell, into the fire that never shall be quenched ; w r here 
their worm dieth not, and the fire is not quenched." — Mark 
ix, 45, 46. As we have before remarked, it must be ob- 
served that it is not that the fire is not to go out, after hav- 
ing consumed to ashes that upon which it preys ; but un- 



Socrates and Plato. — Which? 59 

til then, it cannot be arrested in its ravages ; for to quench, 
is, to put out so that the thing burning is not consumed. 
In regard to the expression, " Their worm dieth not," it is 
evident that the same idea is intended to be conveyed. 
These are the worms that nature uses to decompose all 
animal bodies, as Job says : " Though worms destroy this 
body, yet in my flesh shall I see God." In his immortal 
resurrection-body, in contrast to the corrupt resurrection 
bodies of the wicked. If it is true that the worms prey 
upon the wicked in hell, then they draw their life from, 
them, and are nourished, and grow upon the substance 
of the wicked, who, of course, are devoured in the same 
degree or ratio ; consequently, there must come a time 
when they will cease to suffer, because they will cease to 
be, and the worms will no more die until this is accom- 
plished, than they do in the coffins of the dead at present, 
until all is consumed but the bones ; as they do die now 
and will die then, for the want of food ; besides, how can 
the worms live in hell fires? Now, unless the worms do 
thus decompose the wicked in hell, they not only cannot 
die, but they cannot begin to live ; for it is the prior de- 
composition of nature that produces the conditions upon 
which the worms come into life ; that is, they must first 
die before they can decompose ; then the atmosphere com- 
mences its work of transformation, and when putridity is 
reached, the worms come into life and finish the work of 
destruction. As the wicked are just as corrupt then as 
when they died, the work of destruction will be just as 
rapid as now ; for it is not to be arrested by the interfer- 
ence of God, in killing the worms and granting respites, 
for their worm shall not die. 



6o Christ and Paul ; or, 



"The Worm shall not die." 

The necessities, therefore, in the case, are that the 
worms will consume the corrupt wicked (for corruption is 
the harvest they have reaped) in hell, in just as short a 
space of time as they do the dead now lying upon the sur- 
face of the earth, and exposed to the decomposing ravages 
of the atmosphere. The work of the worms also presup- 
poses that the wicked are already dead, and very far ad- 
vanced in putrescence, as it is only in this condition that 
the worm begins to live. These are not only the philo- 
sophic necessities in the case, but they are the exact con- 
ditions revealed in the Bible of the manner of the punish- 
ment of the wicked. They are first gathered from off 
all the earth by the angels, and cast into a place called 
hell. They are then and there slaughtered by Jesus 
Christ in person, or by the angels at His order. The 
worms and birds of prey now do their natural work. This 
is succeeded by the kindling of the whole land where the 
wicked are gathered, into a vast lake of fire and brimstone. 
4i The breath of the Lord like a stream of brimstone doth 
kindle it.'* — Isa. This reduces all to smoke and ashes, 
and the wicked are " punished (as Paul says) with ever- 
lasting destruction," not preservation. 

The following passage is supposed to contain similar 
•evidence for the endless continuance of the conscious 
suffering of the wicked ; but we shall see that it is a mere 
sophisticated torturing of the Words of God, just like all 
others, to make them teach Platonic philosophy : " And 
the third angel followed them, saying, with a loud voice, if 
any man worship the beast and his image, and receive 



Socrates and Plato. — Which? 6i 

his mark in his forehead, or in his hand, the same shall 
drink of the wine of the wrath of God, which is poured 
out without mixture, into the cup of his indignation ; and 
he shall be tormented with fire and brimstone in the pres- 
ence of the holy angels, and in the presence of the Lamb ; 
and the smoke of their torment ascendeth up forever and 
ever." — Rev. xiv, 9 — 11. "And to you who are troubled,, 
rest with us, when the Lord Jesus shall be revealed from 
heaven, with His mighty angels, in naming fire, taking 
vengeance on them that know not God, and that obey not 
the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ, who shall be. punished 
with everlasting destruction from the presence of the 
Lord." — 2 Thess., 7 — 9. 

It will be observed that in one of these passages, the 
torment is to be inflicted by the Lamb, and in His pres- 
ence, and in the other, the destruction is to be from His 
presence. It is in His prese?tce while the wicked live and 
suffer, and from His presence when they are destroyed or 
cease to exist. You stand and see a mansion take fire ; 
the firemen make every effort to quench the fire, but with- 
out avail ; you watch it until it is consumed to ashes and 
smoke ; it is now destroyed from your presence, and it is 
also destroyed from God's presence, as it does not exist ; 
but it could not be destroyed from your presence or from 
His presence if it was not consumed, or did not cease to 
exist. The house also perished, by unquenchable fire, as 
it could not be put out. The expression " The smoke of 
the wicked ascended up forever and ever," conveys the 
same idea as " Their worm dieth not," and we suppose, 
the very reason why they were used, was to show that the 
wicked were to be consumed, devoured, and not kept in 
endless, living torments, as in the Tartarian dens of the 
heathen, where immortal souls never cease to be tortured. 



62 Christ and Paul ; or, 



"The Smoke of Their Torment " goes out. 

Smoke is the result of decomposition or consumption, 
and necessitates the extinction of the things or beings 
from which it ascends. Mark the expression, it is not the 
smoke of the brimstone, or other fuel, but the smoke of 
their torment, of their consumption. It is " their wor?n" and 
not any outside instrument of torture that gnaws, and that 
never dies ; therefore, there is no smoke arises from the 
wicked if they do not consume ;' and if it does arise, they 
•do consume, and into ashes and smoke ; and when they 
are thus consumed, the smoke must cease to rise, and the 
w T orm cease to gnaw, for the want of fuel or substance. 
The expression, therefore, forever and ever, is limited to 
the time of burning and gnawing. 

The Meaning of the Words Forever and Ever 
not Necessarily Endless. 

The meaning of the words forever, and forever and 
ever, are relative, whether used in the Bible or in any 
Other book, or intelligently spoken, and that in the Scrip- 
tures especially. They are constantly applied to things 
which have an end. And as the wicked are mortal, and 
never to have eternal or everlasting life, or immortality, 
therefore, no terms applied to their existence or suffering, 
means endless, for if they have no existence they cannot 
suffer endless misery. In proof of this, we quote the fol- 
lowing passages : " Then his master shall bring him unto 
the Judges; he shall also bring him unto the door-post; 
and his master shall bore his ear through with an awl ; 



Socrates and Plato.— Which? 63 

and he shall serve him forever" — Ex. xx, 6. That is, as 
long as the man lives. Hence, "forever" is not endless. 
14 And if he be not redeemed within the space of a full 
year, then the house that is in the walled city shall be 
established forever, thoughout his generations. It shall 
not go out in the jubilee." — Lev. xxv, 30. Here the 
word "forever" is not endless. 44 All the heave offerings 
of the holy things, which the children of Israel offer unto 
the Lord, have I given thee by a statute forever before 
the Lord ; but the Levites shall do the service of the tab- 
ernacle forever throughout your generations."— Num. xviii, 
19, 23. Here the word forever, was limited to the exist- 
ence of the Jewish tabernacle, and does not mean endless. 
44 Then shall there enter into the gates of this city, kings 
and princes, sitting upon the throne of David, riding in 
chariots and horses, they and their princes, the men of 
Judea, and the inhabitants of Jerusalem ; and this city 
shall remain forever." (but the city was burned up.) — Jer. 
xvii, 25. " But if ye will not hearken unto Me to hallow 
the Sabbath day, and not to bear a burden, even entering 
into the gates of Jerusalem on the Sabbath day; then I 
will kindle a fire in the gates thereof, and it shall devour 
the palaces of Jerusalem, and it shall not be quenched." 
— Jer. xvii, 27. Here are the words " forever " and un- 
quenchable fire defined, and both limited to the existence 
of the Jewish dynasty and the City of Jerusalem. This 
destruction took place in accordance with a prediction of 
Christ, and by Titus, a Roman General, A. D., 70. It is 
brought out by the parable of a King, who made a mar- 
riage for His Son, meaning God and Christ : " But when 
the King heard thereof (how the Jews treated the servants 
who were sent to invite them to the marriage) He was 
wroth ; and He sent forth His armies, and destroyed those 



64 Christ and Paul ; or, 

murderers, and burned up their city," — Matt, xxii, 7. 
The destruction of Jerusalem was everlasting destruction, 
as a Jewish dynasty, and the fires which consumed it were 
" unquenchable ;" God kindled them for the purpose, and 
they could not be put out or quenched, but they went out 
of their own accord when the consumption of the city and 
the murderers, was complete. So, if we let the Author of 
the Bible explain His own terms, by the use He makes of 
them, all is easy and natural, while the opposite course is 
that which He denounces thus : " Every day they wrest 
My words, all their thoughts are against Me for evil." — 
Ps. lvi, 5. "Seeing we have received this ministry, we 
have renounced the hidden things of dishonesty; not 
walking in craftiness, nor handling the Word of God de- 
ceitfully, but, by the manifestation of the truth, commend- 
ing ourselves to every man's conscience in the sight of 
God." — 1 Cor. iv, 1, 2. "Even as our beloved brother 
Paul, also, according to the wisdom given unto him, hath 
written unto you, in all his epistles, speaking in them of 
these things, (the burning of the heavens and the earth, 
and the ungodly, in the last day. Read the whole chapter.) 
in which are some things hard to be understood, which 
they that are unlearned and unstable, wrest, as they do 
also the other Scriptures, unto their own destruction." — 
2 Pet. iii, 15, 16. It is plain to see that those who wrest 
the Scriptures are unlearned in them, and their only study 
of them is to make them appear to teach their creeds and 
preconceived doctrines, thus : " Teaching for doctrines, the 
commandments of men." They may be learned in the 
theological literature of men, and even that of received 
science and philosophy, but the estimation God puts upon 



Socrates and Plato. — Which? 65 

that, is this : " For the wisdom of the world is foolishness 
with God ; He taketh the wise in their own craftiness, and 
the Lord knoweth the thoughts of the wise, that they are 
vain; therefore, let no man glory in men." — 1 Cor. iii, 19 
— 21. "For the foolishness of God, is wiser than men." 
" But we preach Christ crucified, unto the Jews a stumb- 
ling-block, and unto the Greeks, foolishness." Here were 
the wise Creeks, who certainly understood their own Greek 
language better than any modern Greek scholars, yet to 
them the gospel was " foolishness." Just so the gospel of 
Christ's real death and resurrection, and that of His saints, 
upon which their future conscious existence depends, as 
well as the destruction of the wicked, is foolishness to 
these learned Greek scholars. Now, the great mass of the 
Greeks, to whom Paul preached Jesus and the resurrec- 
tion, and immortality depending upon the resurrection, 
refused His doctrine, calling it foolishness, and Paul him- 
self, "a babbler," (See Acts xvii,) and preferred the wise 
teachings of their own Grecian philosophers, Socrates and 
Plato, who believed in the natural immortality of the soul, 
and that the soul is the living, thinking, feeling inhabitant 
of the body, out of which it moves at what is called, but 
which is not death, only a separation of the living in- 
habitant from a lifeless house. Thus do they wrest the 
Words of God, to make them appear to teach the doc- 
trines of Socrates and Plato, and cover the iniquity of 
thus rejecting Christ and the resurrection, the only source 
and manner of immortality to man, by vain attempts to 
make the Greek language teach Platonic theology, instead 
of Christ's gospel. 



66 Christ and Paul ; or, 



This Discussion a Subject of Prophesy, Connected 
with the Coming of Christ. 

Never before in the history of the world have the pro- 
fessed ministry of the gospel devoted themselves, private- 
ly and publicly, to this work, as at the present time, and it 
would be wonderful, if such an event, of so much import- 
ance to Christ's true Church, (His saints) had not been 
made a subject of prophetic prediction. That God saw 
it and inspired it to be written, is recorded in various 
places in His Word, one picture of which is the following : 
"I charge thee, therefore, before God and the Lord Jesus 
Christ, who shall judge the quick and the dead at His ap- 
pearing and His kingdom; preach the Word (not your 
words, but Mine); be instant in season and out of season ; 
reprove, rebuke, exhort with all long suffering and doc- 
trine ; for the time will come when they will not endure 
sound doctrine, but after their own lusts they shall heap 
to themselves teachers, having itching ears ; and they shall 
turn away their ears from the truth, and shall be turned 
unto fables/' — 2 Tim. iv. In the preceding chapter he 
gives us another part of the picture, thus : " This know 
also, that in the last days, perilous times shall come, (then 
he gives a description of the various sins of which those 
will be guilty who have a form of Godliness, and by which 
acts they deny the power ; which, if any man will read, and 
take all those guilty of such things out of the present 
professed Christian Church, he will not find many left. 
Paul then goes on and gives the character of the teachers 
of this people) : " Ever learning and never able to come to 



Socrates and Plato. — Which? 67 

the knowledge of the truth." Then follows a picture of 
the Spiritualists, who also resist the truth ; men of corrupt 
minds, reprobate concerning the faith. " Now, as Jannes 
and Jambres withstood Moses, so do these always resist 
the truth. But they shall proceed no further ; for their 
folly shall be manifested unto all men, as theirs also was." 
The folly of Pharaoh and his army was found out when 
they were destroyed in the Red Sea, in listening to the 
familiar Spiritualists. This was the peril to which they 
were thus exposed. And in the days of these false relig- 
ious teachers, and these magicians, Jesus Christ shall come 
in the clouds of heaven, with power and great glory, and 
to reward those who have not been ashamed of His words, 
and destroy them who have wrested them. Hence, " In 
the last days, perilous times shall come." 

Limitation of the Words Everlasting. 

The covenant of circumcision was everlasting, and yet 
Christ abolished it. " Then will I cause you to dwell in 
this place, in the land that I gave to your fathers, forever 
and ever," — Jer. vii, 7. The Jews, however, have been 
dispossessed of that land, and by God's intervention, most 
two thousand years; and if they had complied with 
the conditions of possession, still it would have shared in 
the general conflagration of the world ; hence, the words 
forever and ever are limited to the duration of the thing 
or being to which they are applied, which duration must 
be ascertained from other sources of information. " They 
said, turn ye again now, every one of you from his evil 
way, and from the evil of your doings, and dwell in the 
land that the Lord hath given unto you, and to your 



£8 Christ and Paul; or, 

fathers, forever and ever." — Jer. xxv, 5. This was the 
land of Canaan, and if the words forever and ever, meant 
without end, then the promise has failed, for the Turks 
have owned and dwelt in that land for more than twelve 
hundred years. These were the terms of the old covenant, 
God made with Abraham, and which the new covenant 
abolished, and the words forever and ever were limited to 
the existence of the old covenant. We have seen that 
the wicked, being mortal, which existence is opposite 
to that of the righteous, who are to be immortal, (not mor- 
tal) will die, and this is the reward awaiting them. " The 
wages of sin is death," "They shall not see life;" there- 
fore, the words forever, and forever and ever, are limited 
to their existence. If it is the everlasting God, it means 
without beginning or end. If it is the everlasting Gospel, 
it means the duration of the present world, with which it 
ceases to exist. If it is the everlasting kingdom of God, 
it means without end, from the time it is set up in the New 
Heavens and New Earth. If it is Christ, a priest torever, 
it is limited to the dispensation of mercy to mankind. If 
it is that Christ ever liveth to make intercession for the 
saints, it ends with the work of mediation, and that with 
the existence of the present world. If it is the everlasting 
hills, they are to end with the world also. If it is the joys 
of the saints at God's right hand, in His kingdom, which 
are forevermore, they have no end. If it is the everlast- 
ing wailings of the damned, they cease with the existence 
of the wicked. If it is eternal judgment, it means only 
the duration of the judgment at the last day, the end of 
which is already described. If it is the everlasting fires of 
hell, they go out with the consumption of the wicked, 
which reduces them to ashes and smoke. If it is the 
^moke of their torment ascending up forever and ever, it 



Socrates and Plato. — Which? 69 

ceases when there is nothing more of the wicked to burn 
or smoke. Hence, the words everlasting, forever, forever 
and ever, or even eternal, of themselves, do not express 
endless duration, or that the things which they describe 
are without end. 

The Words " Vengeance of Eternal Fire/' not 
Endless Misery. 

That the mistake in supposing the opposite, may not 
honestly be made, God has furnished us with an example, 
thus : " Even as Sodom and Gomorrah, and the cities 
about them, in like manner, giving themselves over to for- 
nication, and going after strange flesh, are set forth for an 
example, suffering the vengeance of eternal fire." — Jude 7. 
The short history of this destruction, is as follows : " The 
sun was risen upon the earth when Lot entered into Zoar. 
Then the Lord rained upon Sodom and Gomorrah, brim- 
stone and fire from the Lord, out of heaven ; and He over- 
threw those cities, and all the plain, and all the inhabit- 
ants of the cities, and that which grew upon the ground. 
And Abraham got up early in the morning to the place 
where he stood before the Lord ; (that was on the pre- 
vious day, while he pleaded for the city of Lot, his nephew,) 
and he looked toward Sodom and Gomorrah, and toward 
all the land of the plain ; and behold, and lo, the smoke of 
the country went up as the smoke of a furnace ; and God 
destroyed the cities of the plain/'— Gen. xix, 23—25, 
27—30. 

This conflagration was in 1898, B.C., since which time 
there is the Dead Sea covering the spot where the cities 
stood. The quenchless, eternal fires went out just as soon 
as the people and their dwellings ceased to exist, at least, 
after having consumed the soil and the earth deep down, 



70 Christ and Paul ; or, 

making the bed for the sea of death. Mark the expres- 
sion ; it is the vengeance of eternal fire. It is eternal ven- 
geance. The very suffering is eternal, in the language, yet 
they did not consciously suffer a single hour, or no longer 
than a man could suffer in a rain of fire and brimstone, 
and we suppose God added the brimstone in mercy, which 
suffocated, with a few inhalations, every living thing, be- 
fore the fires consumed them. Thus, if God is permitted 
to explain His own terms, there is no room left for the 
ever-living, conscious torments of heathen philosophy. 
We add one passage more, and leave the Bible view ol the 
subject: " Behold, the day cometh that shall burn as an 
oven ; and all the proud, yea, and all that do wickedly, 
shall be stubble, (not immortal beings,) and the day that 
cometh shall burn them up, saith the Lord of hosts, that 
it shall leave them neither root nor branch. (How much 
is left of a plant, if its roots and branches, every one of 
them, are burned up ?) But unto you that fear My name 
shall the sun of righteousness arise, with healing in His 
wings; (giving them eternal life, where there shall be no 
more sickness and no more pain,) and ye shall go forth, 
and grow up as calves of the stall; and ye shall tread 
down the wicked, (know ye not that the saints shall judge 
angels ?) for they shall be ashes under the soles of your 
feet, in the day that I shall do this, saith the Lord of 
hosts." — Mall, iv, i, 2. Here is the destiny of all the 
proud and wicked of the world, " Punished with everlast- 
ing destruction." 

A Three-Fold Argument. 

In relation to the nature and duration of this punish- 
ment, and which show the destruction of the wicked is to 



Socrates and Plato. — Which? 71 

come to an end, and not to be continuous, we introduce 
three passages which qualify each other: 

First. — " Depart from Me, ye cursed, into everlasting 
fire, prepared for the devil and his angels; and these shall 
go away into everlasting punishment, but the righteous 
into life eternal. " — Matt, xxv, 46. 

That the punishment is everlasting destruction, and not 
preservation, is proved by the second passage, thus : " Who 
shall be punished with everlasting destruction from the pres- 
ence of the Lord and the glory of His power." — 2 Thess , 

h 9- 

14 But rather fear Him, which is able to destroy both 
soul and body in hell." — Matt, x, 28. 

Third. — " Thou hast rebuked the heathen, thou hast 
destroyed the wicked, thou hast put out their name for- 
ever and ever ; O, thou enemy ! destructions are come to a 
perpetual end; their memorial is perished with them." — 
Ps. ix, 5, 6. 

Look at this three-fold argument : First. — It is everlast- 
ing punishment. Second. — The punishment, is everlast- 
ing destruction. Third. — The destruction co?nes to a per- 
petual end. Is it possible for infinite wisdom to construct 
an argument more conclusive than this against the heathen 
doctrine of " endless misery "? 

Origin of the Doctrine of Endless Torments, 
Heathen Philosophy. 

That we may have a proper view of the origin and na- 
ture of the doctrine of the immortality of the wicked and 
of endless torments, we introduce those of Socrates and 
Plato, his pupil, who, by universal consent, are acknowl- 
edged to be the best authority and exponents of heathen 



72 Christ and Paul ; or, 

mythology. " And now the Author of all things thus ad- 
dressed the geni, to whom He had confided the govern- 
ment of the stars ; Ye gods, who owe to Me your birth, 
listen to My sovereign commands. You have not a title 
to immortality, but you may partake in it by power of 
My will, more potent than the bonds which unite the parts 
of which you are composed, to fill with inhabitants the 
sea, the earth, and the air. Were these creatures to re- 
ceive life from me, they would be exempt from the empire 
of death, and become equal to the gods themselves ; I, 
therefore, commit to you the care of producing them. 
Delegates of any power, unite to perishable bodies the 
germs of immortality, which you shall receive from me, 
and form those beings who have command over other an- 
imals, to remain subject to you. Let them receive birth 
at your command, live to increase by your benefactions, 
and after death, let them unite to you and share in your 
happiness. He said, and immediately pouring into the 
cup in which he had mixed the soul of the world, the re- 
mains of what he had reserved of that soul, he composed 
the souls of individual creatures, adding to those of man, 
a portion of divine essence, and annexed to them irrevoc- 
able destinies. 

.. " Then it was decreed that mortals should be born, cap- 
able of knowing and serving the divinity ; that the man 
should have the pre-eminence over the woman ; that jus- 
tice should consist in triumphing over the passions, and 
injustice in yielding to them; that the just, after death, 
should pass into the stars, and there enjoy unalterable 
felicity; and that the unjust should be changed into 
women, or if they continued unjust, transmigrated into 
different animals ; and that they should not be restored to 
their primitive dignity until they should become obedient 



Socrates and Plato. — Which? 73 

to the voice of reason. After these immutable decrees, 
the Supreme Being disseminated souls into the different 
planets, and commanded the inferior gods to clothe them 
successively with mortal bodies, to provide for their wants 
and to govern them. He then entered again into eternal 
repose. The immortal and rational soul was assigned its 
place in the brain, the most elevated part of the body, to 
regulate its motions. " — Plato. " Selections of a Father/' 
pages 170, 171. 

Socrates on the Immortality of the Soul. 

My friends, there is still one thing which is very just to 
believe ; if the soul be immortal, it requires to be culti- 
vated with attention, not only for what we call the time of 
life, but for that which is to follow ; I mean eternity ; and 
the least neglect here, may be attended with endless con- 
sequences. If death were the final dissolution of being, 
the wicked would be great gainers by it, by being deliver- 
ed at once from their bodies, their souls and their vices ; 
but as the soul is immortal, it has no other means of being 
freed from its evils, nor any safety in them, but in becom- 
ing very good and very wise ; for it carries nothing away 
with it but its good or bad deeds, which are commonly 
the consequences of its education, and the cause of eternal 
happiness or misery. 

When the dead are arrived at the rendezvous of de- 
parted souls, whither their demon conducts them, they 
are all judged. Those who have passed their lives in a 
manner neither entirely criminal nor absolutely innocent, 
are sent into a place where they suffer pains proportioned 
to their faults, till being purged and cleansed of their 
guilt, are afterward restored to liberty, and receive the re- 



74 Christ and Paul; or, 

ward of their good actions done in the body. Those who 
are judged to be incurable on account of the greatness of 
their crimes, who have deliberately committed sacrileges 
or murders, and other such offences, the fatal destiny that 
passes judgment upon them hurls them into Tartarus, 
from whence they never depart. But those who are found 
guilty of crimes great indeed, but worthy of pardon, who 
have committed violence in the transports of rage against 
their father or mother, or have killed some one in a like 
emotion, and afterwards repented, these suffer the same 
punishment, and in the same place, but, for a time only, 
till, by their prayers and supplications, they have obtained 
pardon from those whom they have injured. But those 
who have passed through life with peculiar sanctity of man- 
ners, delivered from their earthly abodes as from a prison, 
are received on high, in a pure region, which they inhabit ; 
and, as philosophy has sufficiently purefied them, they live 
without their bodies through all eternity, in a series of 
joys and delights it is not easy to describe, and which the 
shortness of my time will not permit me to explain more 
at large. 

" What I have said, will suffice, I conceive, to prove that 
we ought to endeavor strenuously, throughout our whole 
lives, to acquire virtue and wisdom, for you see how 
great a reward, and how high a hope it proposes to us. 
And though the immortality of the soul were dubious, 
every wise man ought to assure himself that it is well 
worth his trouble to risk his belief of it, in this manner ; 
and, indeed, can there be a more glorious hazard ? We 
ought to enchant ourselves with this blessed hope, for 
which reason I have lengthened this discourse so much." 
— " Selections of a Father," pages 234 — 236. 



Socrates and Plato. — Which? 7$ 



Socrates went to Heaven at Death. 

Goldsmith says : " Socrates employed the last day of 
his life in entertaining his friends upon this great and im- 
portant subject, from which conversation, Plato's admira- 
ble dialogue, entitled " The Phedon," is wholly taken. He 
explains to his friends, all the arguments for believing the 
soul immortal, and refutes all the objections against it, 
which are very nearly the same as are made at this day. 
When Socrates had done speaking, Crito asked him : ' In 
what manner he thought fit to be buried V As you please, 
said Socrates, if you can lay hold of me, and I not escape 
out of your hands. At the same time, looking at his 
friends with a smile, said : ' I can never persuade Crito, that 
Socrates is he who converses with you, and disposes the 
several parts of his discourse, for he always imagines that 
I am what he is going to see dead in a little while ; he 
confounds me with my carcass, and therefore asks me how 
I would be interred.' " — " Goldsmith's History of Greece," 
page 185. 

Here is the heathen doctrine of the future state of re- 
wards and punishments, and we have already seen that 
not a single element of it is taught in the Bible. 



How the Heathen Doctrine of Endless Misery 

CAME INTO THE CHURCH. 

It was principally introduced into the so-called Chris- 
tian Church, (but which, in fact, brought the Papal Church 



76 Christ and Paul ; or, 

into existence,) by Origen, a Platonic philosopher, though 
a Presbyter of Antioch. Dr. Mosheim says, " The prin- 
ciples which gave rise to another species of theology, and 
which was called ' Mystic/ was derived from the same 
source as the scholastic. The authors of this mystic sci- 
ence are not known, but the principles . from which it 
sprung, are manifest. Its first promoters proceed from 
that well-known doctrine of the Platonic school, which 
was also adopted by Origen and his disciples, that the 
divine nature was diffused through all human souls ; that 
the faculty of reason, from which proceeds the health and 
vigor of the mind, was an emanation from God, and com- 
prehended in it, all truth, human and divine. " It is easy 
to see that if this opinion is true, there is no further use 
of a Revelation, or of a Bible, for whatever it teaches is 
to be submitted to human reason, wherein resides all truth, 
human and divine, for its decision. Hence, we have the 
decision of the holy fathers, prominent among whom was 
Origen, and that decision comprehends the infallible dog- 
mas of the Romish Church : hence, also, the hatred of that 
Church to the Bible, and the positive dread of its free cir- 
culation. The historian continues : " Origen entertained 
the notion that it was extremely difficult, if not impossible, 
to defend the Bible, so long as it was explained according 
to the real import of its terms. He, therefore, had re- 
course to the fecundity of a lively imagination, adopting 
that maxim of theirs which asserted the innocence of de- 
fending the truth by artifice and falsehood ; and main- 
tained that the Holy Scriptures were to be interpreted 
in the same allegorical manner that the Platonists used in 
explaining the history of the gods. In consequence of 
this pernicious rule of interpretation, he alleged that the 



Socrates and Plato. — Which? 77 

words in the Scriptures, were, in many places, void ot 
sense ; and though in others there were, indeed, certain 
notions conveyed under the outward terms, according to 
their literal form and import, yet it was not in these that 
the true meaning of the sacred writers was to be sought, 
but in a mysterious sense arising from the nature of things 
themselves. This hidden sense he endeavors to investi- 
gate throughout his commentaries, neglecting and despis- 
ing for the most part, the outward letter. 

In this devious path he displays the most ingenious 
strokes of fancy, and always at the expense of truth, whose 
divine simplicity is scarcely discernable through the cob- 
web vail of allegory. Nor did the inventions of Origen 
end here, for he divided this hidden sense, which he pur- 
sued with eagerness, into moral and mystical, or spiritual. 
The moral sense of Scripture displays those doctrines that 
relate to the inward state of the soul and conduct of life. 
The mystical sense represents the nature, laws, and history 
of the world ; and we have not yet reached the end of the 
labyrinth, for he sub-divided this mystical world of his 
own creation into two distinct regions, one of which he 
called the superior heavens, and the other, the inferior, by 
which he meant the Church. This led to another divis- 
ion of the mystical sense into an allegorical, or earthly 
one, adapted to the inferior world, and an anagogical, or 
celestial sense, adapted to the superior region. Thus were 
the doctrines of Christ fatally corrupted by the prince of 
darkness, coming as an angel of light, in the person of a 
Presbyter, but still nothing but a heathen philosopher, and 
only making a profession of Christianity because Constan- 
tine had made it the religion of the empire in the place of 
his Platonic Paganism. 



78 Christ and Paul ; or, 



Catholicism Founded on Heathenism. 

Here and thus was laid the foundation of the Papal 
Church, upon Plato, and not Peter, and much less upon 
Christ. Now, with such a foundation, what better sup- 
erstructure could be erected thereon, than that of the 
Great Mystic Babylon of the Bible, the mother of harlots, 
and abominations of the earth, whose exhaustless fountain 
of corruption has infected the whole moral, mental, civil 
and religious world. 

The historian continues : " Origen was the great model 
whom the most eminent Christian doctors followed, in 
their explanation of the truths of the Gospel, and which 
were consequently explained according to the rules of the 
Platonic philosophy, as it was corrected and modified by 
this learned father. Those who desire a more ample and 
accurate account of this matter, may consult Gregory 
Nazianzen, Platonist among the Greeks, and Augustine, 
among the Latins, who for a long time were followed as 
the only patterns worthy of imitation, and who, next to 
Origen, may be considered the parents and supporters of 
the philosophical, or scholastic theology, and who were 
both zealous Platonists, holding for certain all the tenets 
of that philosophy, which were not totally repugnant to 
the truths of Christianity ; (what those were, may be gath- 
ered from the fact that he still held to the transmigration 
of human souls into cats,) these were laid down as funda- 
mental principles, and they drew from them a great vari- 
ety of subtle conclusions, which neither Christ nor Plato 
ever thought of." — " Mosheim's Ecclesiastical History," 
vol. i, page 276. 



Socrates and Plato. — Which? 79 

Our readers may now be able to trace these doctrines 
of a future state, back through the holy fathers of Roman 
Catholicism, directly to the heathen mythology of Socrates, 
and Plato, his pupil, who, after he had learned all his mas- 
ter could teach him, as he was now dead, went to Egypt 
to perfect his education. Egypt, in those days, was the 
most renowned school of the world. It must also be re- 
membered that the doctrines of Origen, Plato and Soc- 
rates, originated with the Pagan priests of Egypt. See 
" Platonic Theology," by Prof. Lewis. 

We do not like to draw comparisons between Jesus 
Christ and a man, but as Socrates is considered the father 
of this heathen, moral philosophy, and the best exponent 
of the mythological future state after death, and the man- 
ner of escape into it, which he was just going to experi- 
ence, let us hear what the founder of Christianity had to 
say about His approaching death and survival from it. 

Socrates did not die, he only Moved out of his 
body; but Jesus did die. 

" Jesus said unto them, the Son of Man shall be be- 
trayed into the hands of men ; and they shall kill Him, 
and the third day He shall be raised again. " — Matt, 
xvii, 22, 23. Socrates was not going to be killed, he was 
only going to separate from his body, or carcass. " And 
the angel answered and said unto the women, fear not, 
for I know that ye seek Jesus, which was crucified ; He 
is not here, for He is risen, as He said. Come, see the 
place where the Lord lay." — Matt, xxviii, 5, 6. 

Here we see that the Lord himself had laid in the grave, 
but Socrates had not ; he had eseaped and ascended up 
to heaven ; nothing but his carcass was in the grave. 



bo Christ and Paul ; or, 

Jesus, however, did not ascend to heaven until forty days 
afterward, and then He took His carcass with Him. 
While the soul of Socrates was immortal, and did not die, 
the soul of Jesus was mortal, and died, and was in the 
grave. 

" Thou wilt not leave My soul in hell, (the grave, for 
He " descended into the lower parts of the earth,") neith- 
er wilt thou suffer thine Holy One to see corruption. " 
Here was also the Holy One, in the grave. " Men and 
brethren, let me freely speak unto you of the patriarch 
David, that he was both dead and buried, (though 
Socrates was not,) and his sepulcher is with us unto this 
day ; therefore, being a prophet, and knowing that God 
had sworn with an oath to him, that He would raise up 
Christ to sit on his throne; he seeing this before, spake 
of the resurrection of Christ ; that His soul was not left in 
hell, neither did His flesh see corruption. This Jesus 
hath God raised up, whereof we are all witnesses." 
David has not ascended into the heavens, but Socrates 
has. 

That Christ was changed from mortality to immortality, 
by His resurrection from the dead, we have such proof as 
this : " If the spirit of Him that raised up Christ from the 
dead, dwell in you, He that raised up Jesus from the dead 
shall also quicken your mortal bodies by His spirit that 
dwelleth in you." — Rom. viii, 2. Hence, Christ had no 
immortal soul, if Socrates had, and Christ only went to 
heaven through the resurrection, while Socrates went with- 
out any resurrection; his immortality was natural endow- 
ment. Not only so, but the manner in which God makes 
the immortal saints or souls such, is perfectly evident from 
such Scripture as this : " If Christ be not risen from the 
dead, then they that have fallen asleep in Christ are per- 



Socrates and Plato. — Which? 8i 

ished." If their Lord had remained dead and perished, 
so had His saints. " I am the way, the truth, and the 
light. I am the resurrection and the life." Out of Christ, 
therefore, there is no life of any kind, or degree, in the 
future; and none in Him, but to the saints, and it comes 
only through the same resurrection the Lord himself 
passed. 

The Doctrine of Immortality by Christ in the 
Resurrection Fatal to Romanism. 

If there was equal evidence in the Bible for the heathen 
view of going to heaven at death, and natural immortal- 
ity, (but for which there is not a particle,) as there is for 
the resurrection of life, and immortality, and no heaven 
till that event, which would leave the preachers of the 
Gospel equally free to preach the latter, and had they pur- 
sued this course as they did in the apostolic age, with the 
exception of a few heretics, who overthrew the faith of 
some, by preaching that the resurrection passes on every 
man when he dies ; w T e say, had this been done, the Rom- 
an Catholic Church would never have existed, as it is per- 
fectly incompatable w r ith these truths. Instead of Peter, 
with his keys, sitting in heaven, opening and shutting its 
gates, for the admission of Catholics and the rejection of 
Protestants, he lies asleep in his grave, and in the very 
day he died " his thoughts perished ;" he, therefore, knows 
nothing of the mystical operation. Instead of the Virgin 
Mary being in heaven, hearing Papish prayers, and inter- 
ceding her hard-hearted Son in their behalf, she per- 
ished when she died, and will remain thus, as did her 
Great Son, until the resurrection rescued Him. Hence, 
she knows nothing of her idol worshipers. 



82 Christ and Paul ; or, 

Instead of the infernal indulgence of purgatory, which 
offers certain salvation, by the merit of its fires, to all 
Catholics, at the contempt of Christ and His merits, the 
foolish prayers are stripped of the mystic shrines, and if 
they should call as loud as did the priests of Baal, still the 
dead, cold ears of the " Canonized " would be heedless to 
the cries. Just dismiss Socrates, Plato and Origen, with 
their natural immortalism, and preach Jesus and the res- 
urrection, and Oh, what multitudes of the deluded would 
embrace the gospel and be saved. In a word, take heath- 
enism out of Papacy, and all the depths of satanic art could 
not keep it alive. 

Not only so, but what an illumination from God's Great 
Bible w r ould inundate the religious world. How the ab- 
surdities, that the dead are alive, that they have gone into 
heaven instead of the grave, that Abel, though he has been 
in heaven six thousand years, is to be brought out, and 
judged " whether he is good or bad." Cain, who committ- 
ed the first murder, has been burning in hell's torments 
for six thousand years, still, he is to have a short respite, 
under a divine habeus corpus, and tried, to ascertain 
whether he is guilty. Besides, he has suffered six thou- 
sand years longer in hell than it is possible for the last 
murderer to suffer; and inflicted, too, by a just God. 

Socrates saw that it would be gross injustice for his 
heathen gods to administer such awards, and he, there- 
fore, invented Purgatory, to get them out, after they had 
become sufficiently purified by the purgatorial fires. Jesus 
Christ declared, " No man hath ascended up into heaven 
at any time/' but Socrates declared that all the virtuous go 
immediately to heaven when they die. Whose testimony 
is true ? Who is to be believed ? And yet, people calling 
themselves Christians, turn away their ears from these 



Socrates and Plato. — Which? 83 

great truths of Christ and the Gospel, and cling to those 
here shown to belong to Pagan idolatry. If we have any 
hesitancy in choosing between these opinions of heathens 
and Papists, on the one side, and the truths taught by 
Jesus Christ on the other, for fear of losing popularity, it 
will be well to reflect upon such warnings as these : 
" Whosoever is ashamed of Me and of My Words, of him 
will I be ashamed before My Father and His holy angels.'* 
— Mark viii, 38. " And whatsoever is made known as 
secret, that publish upon the house-top." — Jesus. 

The Origin of Purgatory. 

Here originated the doctrine of purgatory. The prac- 
tice of praying sinners out of it ; the immortality of the 
soul ; the ever-living torments of the damned ; that death 
is not death, but a separation ; that the body is nothing but 
a carcass, a prison-house, a tenement for the soul, which is 
the man proper, the thinking, feeling, living, immortal in- 
habitant ; that at death, the good go immediately into 
heaven, and the wicked into hell ; that the salvation de- 
pends upon the performance of good works, and the dam- 
nation upon bad ones, the one merits heaven and the 
other hell ; that bodiless spirits live, think, and feel, and 
the wicked are hurled into Tartarus, or Hades, where 
Pluto presides. Some of the tortures practiced in these 
dens, are described substantially as follows : " Some of the 
sufferers are imprisoned in pools of water, which, by con- 
tinual pumping, can be kept from submerging them ; but 
they become exhausted, then the water rises above their 
heads, when they endure all the pains of suffocating and 
strangulation, yet they cannot die, as they are immortal, 
and the ceaseless monotony only alternates between ex- 



84 Christ and Paul ; or, 

haustion and the death struggles of drowning men. An- 
other mode of torment is, that the victims are starving with 
hunger, and before their eyes, is a table furnished with 
the choicest fruits and meats calculated to enhance the 
appetite, but the length of their chain is too short to en- 
able them to reach the wished-for repast, and they are 
thus doomed to suffer the famishing sensation of hunger, 
without a moments alleviation, to all eternity. Others are 
chained to pillars, with their hands bound, amid w T ild vul- 
tures, which forever prey upon their vitals, gnawing the 
heart, liver, and lungs, but which, by a law of the gods, 
were reproduced, so that the pain of being eaten alive was 
experienced, without the least respite. No instrument 
could destroy these beings, or put them out of existence ; 
even the gods that made them could never unmake, for 
the immortal soul was a part of the gods ihemselves. ,, 

Heathen Future Punishment Adopted by Prot- 
estantism. 

To show how completely the fictitious fables of this 
heathen Tantalus have been adopted by the Christian 
Church, we quote the following poetic description from 
the pen of a minister : 

" Fast by the side of this unsightly thing 
Another was portrayed, more hideous still, 
Who sees it once, shall wish to see it no more ; 
Forever undescribed let it remain! 
Only this much I may or can unfold, 
Far out it thrust a dart that might have made 
The knees of terror quake, and on it hung, 
Within the triple barbs, a being, pierced 
Through soul and body. Of heavenly make, 



Socrates and Plato. — Which? 

Original, the being seemed ; but fallen, 

And worn, and wasted with enormous woe ; 

And still, around the everlasting lance, 

It writhed, convulsed, and uttered mimic groans ; 

And tried and wished, and ever tried and wished 

To die, but could not die. Oh, horrid sight ! 

I, trembling, gazed and listened, and heard this 

Voice approach my ear: 'This is eternal death.' 

Nor these alone. Upon this wall, 

In horrible emblazonry, were lined 

All shapes, all forms, all modes of wretchedness 

And agony, and grief, and desperate woe ; 

And prominent in characters of fire, 

"Where 'er the eye could light, these words you 

Read : 'Who comes this way, behold, and fear to sin/ 

Amazed, I stood and thought such imagery 

Fortokened, within, a dangerous abode ; 

But yet, to see the worst a wish arose, 

For Virtue, by the holy seal of God 

Accredited and stamped, immortal all, 

And all invulnerable, fears no hurt. 

As easy as my wish, as rapidly, I 

Through the horrid rampart passed, unscathed 

And unopposed ; and, poised on steady wing, 

I hovering, gazed. Eternal justice ! sons 

Of God ! tell me, if ye can tell, what then 

I saw, what then I heard. Wide was the place, 

And deep as wide, and ruinous as deep ; 

Beneath, I saw a lake of burning fire, 

With tempest tost perpetually, and still 

The waves of fiery darkness 'gainst the rocks 

Of dark damnation broke, and music made 

Of melancholy sort ; and over head, 

And all around, wind warred with wind, 

Storm howled to storm, lightning, forked lightning 

Crossed, and thunder answered thunder, muttering 

Sounds of sullen wrath. As far as sight 

Could pierce, or down descend in caves of 

Hopeless depth, through all that dungeon 



86 Christ and Paul : or, 

Of unlading fire, I saw most miserable 
Beings walk ; burning continually, yet 
Unconsumed ; forever wasting, yet enduring 
Still ; dying perpetually, yet never dead. 
Some wandered lonely in the desert flames. 
And some in full encounter fiercely met, 
With curses loud, and blasphemies, that made 
The cheek of darkness pale ; and as they fought, 
And cursed, and gnashed their teeth, and 
Wished to die, their hollow eyes did utter streams 
Of woe. And there were groans that ended not, 
And sighs that always sighed, and tears that 
Ever wept, and ever fell, but not in mercy's 
Sight. Sorrow, repentance and despair, 
Among them walked, and to their thirsty lips 
Presented frequent cups of burning gall. 
And as I listened, I heard these beings curse 
Almighty God, and curse the Lamb, and curse 
The earth, the resurrection morn ; and seek, 
And ever vainly seek, for utter death ; 
And to their everlasting anguish still, 
The thunders from above, responding, spoke 
These words, which through the caverns of 
Perdition forlornly echoing, fell on every ear : 
' Ye knew your duty, but ye did it not.' " 

— '''Pollock's Course of Time " pages 36 — 40. 



The Heresy of Exalting Satan to be Christ's 
Compeer. 

Here is satan exalted to be a most despotic king, whom 
Christ was committed to destroy, but failed. Sinners, his 
prominent work, instead of being destroyed, are made im- 
mortal, despite His power. In the great contest, Omnip- 
otence fled, vanquished, from the field ; death, the devil, 
the wicked, live forever, and sin is eternal, reigning over 



Socrates and Plato. — Which? 87 

half of the human species, although thus it is written : 
"Afterward, they that are Christ's at His coming, then 
cometh the end, when He (Christ) shall have delivered up 
the kingdom to God, even the Father, when He shall 
have put down all rule, and all authority and power; for 
He must reign, till He hath put all enemies under His feet. 
The last enemy that shall be destroyed is death." — 1 Cor. 
xv, 24 — 26. It is clear from this, that the putting all His 
enemies under His feet, is destroying them. But here the 
haters of Christ are exalted to eternal power and immor- 
tal authority, ruling without end. Behold! through the 
infernal heathen mythology, how the Son of God has failed 
of His declared purposes, and the devil is triumphant. 
Behold the damnable heresy, in the last degree, insulting 
and degrading to Christ and His Gospel. See how the 
teaching of heathen priests is preferred to Christ's Great 
Gospel. Listen no more to the voice amid the horrid din 
of discord of Plato, and let Jesus be silent ; cry out no 
more, " Give us our Barrabas, and let Jesus be crucified. " 
Thus, by a touch of the heathen mythological wand of 
interpretation, destruction means eternal preservation ; 
death means eternal life ; and the Good God of the Bible 
is confounded with the monster Molech. 

Eternal Misery Forbids the Possibility of 
Loving God. 

God teaches man to love his enemies ; to do good to 
them who hate, and despitefully use and persecute him ; 
but behold ! how He hates His enemies. Behold ! how 
malignantly He pursues them, not willing to burn them 
up, which might easily be reconciled with justice, and 
even with mercy, they having refused to answer the pur- 



88 Christ and Paul ; or, 

pose of their being; but to keep them alive in order to 
torment them, when, if He would take off His hand, they 
would die in a few moments by the raging flames of fire 
and brimstone. Behold your mother, father, sister, broth- 
er, wife, husband, child, writhing in the ceaseless flames 
of hell, and you are in the kingdon of God. Ten thou- 
sand years have passed away, and you see your child, only 
daughter, boil up to the surface in the fiery cauldron, lift- 
ing her sorrowful eyes, inquires, " How long, O Lord ; 
how long?" God responds, " Eternally, eternally, eter- 
nally." She casts a horrid glance toward the mother and 
God, and swings off into another ten thousand, at the end 
of which time the lake of fire makes another circle ; look- 
ing more blackened, scorched, haggard and ghastly, and 
with hollow eyes, uttering streams of woe, sees her moth- 
er again, whose only happiness has been to gaze down 
among the damned, to catch a glimpse of her own dear 
daughter ; now hearing the same cry, " How long, O Lord ; 
how long?" but only to hear the wretched, wrathful re- 
sponse, " Misery without end, misery without end." How 
much do you think that mother can enjoy heaven? 

But, it is said, God so changes the nature of the saints 
that they will feel happy at seeing their friends thus suffer. 
Great God, what a statement ! to change the nature of the 
saints into the most perfect conception of demons, who are 
supposed to enjoy the sufferings of others. Their minds 
are to be so far belittled, nay, destroyed, that they will 
understand injustice to be justice; resentment, mercy; 
hatred, love ; and the infliction of misery, kindness. Their 
nature will be so hardened that it will be unmoved to 
pity, at the deepest anguish — -worse than the most debased 
monster that ever trod the earth of sin. The conversion 
is to be such that the saints will love God and hate their 



Socrates and Plato. — Which? 89 

own friends, so as not to feel a pang of suffering at their 
most excruciating anguish. In a word, God once loved 
His enemies, and commanded His people to do so also ; 
but He has changed himself, and has miraculously changed 
His saints, so that all can hate their enemies together. 
Behold, what an infernal scheme of lying philosophy is 
here invented to corrupt the doctrines of Christ's great 
love and justice toward man. 

But there is another and more dreadful aspect of these 
heathen doctrines even than this. This charges God with 
requiring impossibilities of His people, He has implant- 
ed in man's nature, a principle which compels him to hate 
a tyrant. Now, the doctrine of endless misery converts 
God iuto an omnipotent tyrant, and therefore renders it 
impossible for a man to love Him. Let us suppose a man 
appears at the judgment for examination, and some such 
questions as the following, are put to him : " Did you ever 
love Me while in the world which has now ended; and 
were you not moved to fear Me because of My endless- 
misery doctrine?" " Yes ; but I thought it would not be 
so bad with the wicked after all, and I would find this out 
when I came here." " Well, now you have seen how I have 
proceeded against the sinner, and that they are now in the 
lake of fire and brimstone, and how I keep them alive, 
and intend to do so. world without end. 5 ' "Yes; I 
have seen my child cast into it, and now behold him 
writhing and wishing to die, but cannot, as you keep him 
alive on purpose to prolong his conscious misery ; and I 
have learned that you will not be satisfied unless it con- 
tinues endlessly ; and ever since I learned your real de- 
termination, which I hoped might be otherwise, I have 
suffered and must suffer to all eternity, and it would be 
a great relief for me to die." ** Well, do you love Me now. 



90 Christ and Paul ; or, 

and will you serve Me?" "I will serve you; I will do 
anything for you which I have the power to do ; but I 
do not love you, and I cannot, When I was in the world 
I always hated a tyrant, and I never saw one who would 
make others suffer for his mere gratification, which only 
resulted from the execution of his ambitious schemes; 
but you make these poor creatures suffer for your own 
pleasurable glory, or selfish honor. Indeed, I was tor- 
tured even to see a dog kept alive to prolong his suffering, 
and my nature led me to relieve its torments by putting it 
out of conscious existence. Because I dread your punish- 
ment, I will not only do anything of which I am capable 
to avoid its infliction — I will even profess to love you; 
but as you have made me to hate tyrants, and you are an 
omnipotent one, I cannot love you ; and if you admit me, 
and every man has these same feelings in regard to tyrants, 
then you must have your kingdom inhabited by slaves of 
fear, and if you will only admit subjects who profess to 
love you, then it will be filled with hypocrites as well; but 
if you only admit those who really love you, and as that is 
impossible, you will never have any subjects at all, and all 
must go to hell together/' 

This is the God of endless misery; and it is the God of 
heathen mythology as well. In vain does the Good God 
of the Bible protest against associating Him with these. 
While this is the disposition of the gods, from whom even 
Socrates says, " It was never supposed came virtue," listen 
while the living God speaks upon this subject : " As I 
live, saith the Lord God, I have no pleasure in the death 
of the wicked. Turn ye, turn ye, for why will ye die. 1 ' 
Yes, the heathen priests of endless misery reply, you do 
have pleasure in the death of the sinner, and you keep him 
always dying, whereas, if you had no pleasure in his death, 



Socrates and Plato. — Which? 91 

you would let him die at once. Therefore, this theology 
makes God swear to a lie, making Him gratified and glo- 
rified at the endless misery of sinners. But what care the 
heathen doctors for the Words of God ? Plato is their ex- 
pounder of Scripture. Give us our own dear Plato ; he 
can tell us what God means ; him will we hear in all 
things. 



God's Ministers and Plato's. 

God makes one effort more to convince the ministers of 
heathenism of the truths of Christianity. Oh ! that they 
would hear. " For God so loved the world that He gave 
His only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in Him, 
should not perish, but have everlasting life." But Plato 
stirs up his ministers, and they come again with their de- 
ceitful handling of the Word of God, and respond to 
this passage, "Yes; but the word perish, means not to 
perish, but to be preserved from perishing." They cannot 
perish, for then they would escape endless misery, and our 
own, wise Dr. Plato says the soul is the man, and the soul 
is immortal ; the word perish, therefore, should have been 
translated, imperishable, and this is what the Greek word 
requires; so God, you must permit us to point out the er- 
rors in your Book. The passage should have read : " You 
so loved the world that the gift of your Son did not prevent 
men from perishing, ,, for they were immortal through 
Adam, and having eternal life, they could not receive it 
as a gift from your Son, and it is a pity you had not read 
Socrates, and the Greek scholar, Plato, before you sacri- 
ficed your Son, and you would not have made such a 
mistake. 



"92 Christ and Paul ; or, 

How will such contemners and dispisers of God's Words 
appear, when the time described as follows, arrives ? " He 
that is ashamed of Me and of My Words before a per- 
verse generation, of him will I be ashamed before My 
Father and the holy angels." 

Eternal Life Offered to the Righteous. 

Another argument of our hypothesis is, that eternal life 
is offered as a reward to the faithful, and to be conferred 
in the resurrection at the last day. The promise is made 
in such language as this : " Be thou faithful unto death, 
and I will give thee a crown of life." — Rev. ii, 10. The 
crown of life is the symbol of victory over death and the 
grave, and, therefore, is eternal life. This was said to en- 
courage the martyrs, so that if they did fall victims to the 
first death, and that in its most terrible forms, yet they 
should have, by the confirment of eternal life, the victory 
over the second death. The instruction to them was, that 
if they fulfilled the conditions of faithfulness until death, 
losing their lives for Christ's sake, He would see to it that 
they should receive the crown of life, which would for- 
ever render them triumphant over all the power of death 
and the grave, and is thus indicated : " So when this cor- 
ruptable shall have put on incorruption, and this mortal 
shall have put on immortality, then shall be brought to 
pass the saying that is written ; death is swallowed up in 
victory; O death, where is thy sting? O grave, where is 
thy victory?" — i Cor. xv, 54, 55. 

If there was nothing more said in the Bible, as to the 
time when the crown of life was to be awarded, except this 
verse, it might be inferred that it was at death, but even 
this would be a very strange procedure, to encourage a 



Socrates and Plato. — Which? 93 

man to do that for which he would be killed ; but when he 
came to the killing, instead of receiving the crown of life, 
he was disappointed, and received the chain of death. 
All, however, that is here stated, is, that if faithful unto 
death, I will give the crown of life when the time comes, 
according to My plan and proposition for its bestowal. 
You have died in the possession of My spiritual nature* 
and by which you are sealed with My promise of eternal 
life. That this is the truth, we quote as follows : " In 
whom ye also trusted, after that ye heard the word of 
truth, the gospel of your salvation ; in whom also, after 
that ye believed, ye were sealed with that holy spirit of 
promise, which is the earnest (the spirit of it, that which 
is enjoyed in anticipation) of our inheritance, until the re- 
demption of the purchased possession." — Eph. i, 13. To 
show further that it is the spiritual assimilation of man to 
Christ, the "partaking of the divine nature," which is the 
condition of his resurrection to eternal life, we also quote 
the following : " For if the spirit of Him that raised up 
Jesus from the dead, dwell in you, He that raised up 
Christ from the dead shall also quicken your mortal bodies 
by His spirit that dwelleth in you" — Rom. viii, 11. 

In order to settle the question as to the time when 
eternal life, or immortality, which is the same thing, is to 
be given, or to show what the teachings of the Scriptures 
upon the subject are, we introduce the following some- 
what extended testimony, as it is one of those questions 
upon which there is a great deal of honest difference of 
opinion, and very much confusion ; indeed, it is of such 
importance, that the view which confers eternal life upon 
man, either at birth or death, renders a resurrection of the 
dead impossible ; for if Christ's life or soul, or it matters 
not what it is called, did not die, then it was not brought 



94 Christ and Paul ; or, 

back to life ; because, as nothing but life can die, and as 
nothing but that which died can be raised from the dead, 
therefore, if Christ did not die, He did not rise from the 
dead, Hence, if the Pagan philosophy is true, that Christ's 
soul was always immortal, and therefore could not die, 
then it sweeps away the whole foundation of the Christian 
system, and gives as a substitute the doctrine of the Nic- 
olaitanes, which declared that Christ only died in appear- 
ance, and rose in appearance, which thing it is no marvel 
God declares, "I hate." 

Heathenism Knew Nothing of the Immortality 
of the Gospel. 

Heathenism knew nothing about the immortality Paul 
preached, but it was brought to light by the Gospel; 
and now we introduce more extensively the Gospel of im- 
mortality, "Who will render to every man according to 
his deeds. To them who by patient continuance in well- 
doing, seek for glory, and honor, and immortality, eternal 
life." — Rom. ii, 6, 7. Here it is positively shown that 
Paul did not have immortality, or eternal life, but accord- 
ing to the promise of God, was patiently waiting for it. If 
then, Paul did not have immortality and eternal life, in the 
present life, has any other Christian got these? Much 
less, do the wicked possess them ? Again the same Apos- 
tle says, " I am now ready to be offered, and the time of 
my departure is at hand. (His martyrdom was approach- 
ing.) I have fought a good fight; I have finished my 
course ; I have kept the faith ; henceforth, there is laid up 
for me a crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the 
righteous judge, shall give me at that day ; and not to me 



Socrates and Plato.— Which? 95 

only, but to all them that love His appearing." — 2 Tim. 
vi, 7, 8. Paul was one of those in the Church of Smyrna, 
to whom it was said, " Be thou faithful unto death and 1 
will give thee a crown of life ;" but he knew he was not to 
receive it until the day of judgment, and then the saints 
of all ages are also to receive them at once. 

No Rewards or Punishments till the Resurrec- 
tion at the Last Day. 

" Set your affections on things above, and not on things 
on earth ; for ye are dead, (ye Christians are dead, and 
have not eternal life,) and your life is hid with Christ 
in God; when Christ, who is our life, shall appear, then 
shall ye also appear with Him in glory." — Col. iii, 3. 
This patient seeking of the saints for glory, honor; immor- 
tality and eternal life is also presented in the following 
forcible language : " For our light afflictions, which are 
but for a moment, worketh for us a far more exceeding 
and eternal weight of glory, while we look not at the things 
which are seen, but at those things which are not seen ; 
for things which are seen are temporal; but the things 
which are not seen are eternal." He then contrasts these 
temporal and eternal things under the figures of a tran- 
sient tabernacle and an eternal house, the one signifying 
our present mortal being, and the eternal, immortality 
with which the saints are to be clothed, or into which they 
are to be resurrected, or if alive upon the earth at that 
time, suddenly changed. " For we know that if our 
earthly house of this tabernacle were dissolved, we have 
a building of God, an house not made with hands, eternal 
in the heavens, (New Heavens.) For in this we groan, 



96 Christ and Paul ; or, 

earnestly desiring to be clothed upon with our house 
which is from heaven ; if so be, that being clothed, we 
shall not be found naked. For we that are in this taber- 
nacle do groan, being burdened ; not that we would be 
unclothed, (he did not desire to die,) but clothed upon, 
that mortality might be swallowed up of life. Now, 
He that hath wrought us for the self-same thing, is God, 
who also hath given unto us the earnest of the spirit; 
therefore, we are always confident, knowing that, whilst 
we are at home in the body, (this mortal body,) we are 
absent from the Lord, (absent from the Lord in the im- 
mortal body.) For we walk by faith, and not by sight, 
(while we look and wait for the eternal things;) we are 
confident, I say, and willing rather to be absent from the 
body, (the mortal body in which we now groan,) and to 
be present with the Lord, (when the Lord comes with His 
crown, and when mortality shall be swallowed up of life,) 
wherefore we labor, that whether present or absent, we 
may be accepted of Him ; for we must all appear before 
the judgment-seat of Christ, that every one may receive 
the things done in his body, according to that he hath 
done, whether it be good or bad." — 2 Cor. iv, 17, 18, and 
v, 1 — 10. 

From such teaching, nothing can be more clear than 
that Paul had no immortality, or eternal life — had no 
crown or reward, and did not expect any, until received 
at the judgment-seat of Christ. He also said, " God shall 
be magnified in my body, whether it be by life or death ; 
for me to live, is Christ, and to die, is gain. I am in a 
strait betwixt two, having a desire to depart and to be with 
Christ, which is far better. ,, But we have seen that he did 
not expect to be with Christ until the judgment, nor to re- 
ceive his crown, till that event. He further discourses, 



Socrates and Plato. — Which? 97 

thus : " But I would not have you to be ignorant, brethren, 
concerning them which are asleep, that ye sorrow not as 
others, which have no hope, for if we believe that Jesus 
died and rose again, even so them also which sleep in Jesus 
will God bring with Him ; for this we say unto you by 
the Word of the Lord, (it is God's recorded truth,) that we 
which are alive and remain unto the coming of the Lord, 
shall not prevent them which are asleep, for the Lord him- 
self shall descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice 
of the archangel, and with the trump of God ; and the 
dead in Christ shall rise first ; then we which are alive and 
remain, shall be caught up together with them in the clouds, 
to meet the Lord in the air; and so shall we ever be with 
the Lord; wherefore, comfort one another with these 
words." 

The Saints not to be with the Lord until He 
Comes Again. 

The saints are now to be forever with the Lord, but not 
forever in the clouds ; but only till the world is dissolved 
by the fires of the last day, and re-created into the New 
Heavens and the New Earth ; after which, as we have 
said, John saw the Lord himself, and all His saints, de- 
scending to the earth, and taking possession of it, now re- 
stored to Eden beauty and eternal grandeur. This har- 
monizes with that broad declaration of Christ : " No man 
hath ascended up into heaven at any time." — John iii, 13. 
That God w r ould thus populate the world with immortal 
inhabitants, He fixed by decree before He made it at all ; 
" In hope of eternal life, which God t that cannot lie, prom- 
ised before the world began." That there are a few pas- 
sages which speak as though men, ""Christians, had eternal 



gS Christ and Paul ; or, 

life now ; but there are none which positively assert this ; 
if they did, they would flatly contradict all this array of 
positive Scripture; but we must take into the account, the 
fact that whatever is a subject of fiat or decree, and which 
does not depend upon the will of another, God speaks of 
as existing before it does actually exist. As an illustra- 
tion, Christ is said to be a Lamb, slain from the founda- 
tion of the world, whereas, He was not actually slain until 
four thousand years afterward. God said to David, as a 
prophet, and in reference to Christ, " Thou art My Son, 
this day I have begotten thee ;" when, in fact, He was not 
exactly thus begotten until a thousand years afterward. 
Upon the subject, Paul gives us this rule : " God, who 
quickeneth the dead, calleth those things which be not 
(yet) as though they were." — Rom. iv, 17. 

What Things are Subjects of God's Decrees. 

There are certain things which were fixed by the irre- 
vocable decrees of the Almighty before He made the 
world, and which would be necessary for Him to do, or 
have done, in order to accomplish His design with the 
world and its inhabitants. Christ was to be born into tem- 
poral life ; He was also to be born again from the dead into 
eternal life, and to render this possible, He was to die. His 
saints were also to be resurrected to immortality and eter- 
nal life. The world was to be re-created or restored, and 
thus adapted for their everlasting abode ; hence, He also 
promised, " I will come and bring My Father with Me, and 
we will make our abode with you." This is to be accom- 
plished, as He inspired Isaiah thus to write : " Lo, I come, 
and My reward is with Me, and My work before Me." We 
cannot fail to see that the question of immortality being 



Socrates and Plato. — Which? 99 

thus settled by the Scriptures themselves, without the inter- 
vention of human opinion, also settles another question in 
relation to future rewards and punishment, and shows that 
neither are awarded until the last great judgment; and 
relieves the subject of the absurdity of taking Abel out of 
heaven, where he has been enjoying unutterable felicity for 
six thousand years, arraigning him before the judgment- 
seat of Christ, and compelling him to give an account for 
the deeds he had done in the body. Also, in releasing 
Cain from hell's torments, where he had suffered six thou- 
sand years, bringing him before the judgment-seat, trying 
him, to show it to be just that he should be condemned 
as the murderer of his brother, after which, to send him 
back forever and ever. By the way, instead of the coming 
of the judgment being a dreadful event to the wicked, as 
the Bible represents it, it will be a grand event for poor 
Cain, giving him a short respite from these torments. 
Besides, what kind of justice is that which gives Cain, the 
first murderer, six thousand years longer punishment than 
the last murderer of the world can possibly have ? Hence, 
the rewards and punishments of Christianity, are given at 
the judgment, while those of Pagan philosophy, are award- 
ed as every man dies. 

This not a New Doctrine. 

This cannot be called a new doctrine, for we have shown 
it to be as old as the Bible; besides, it was held by the 
two greatest modern reformers, Luther and Wesley. There 
is not a scrap of evidence in the writings of Luther, to show 
that he believed anyone went to heaven or hell before the 
judgment, and he did say this: "I permit the Pope to 
make dunghill decretals for himself and his faithful, such. 



ioo Christ and Paul ; or, 

as, that the soul is immortal, and that he is God upon 
earth." Upon this subject, we quote the following from 
John Wesley : " It is, indeed, very generally believed that 
the souls of good men, as soon as they are discharged 
from the body, go directly to heaven ; but this opinion 
has not the least foundation in the oracles of God." — 
"Wesley's Sermon on the Rich Man and Lazarus," vol. 
n, page 416. We, however, take no man as authority. 
The only question with us is, what saith the Scriptures ? 
What has God revealed ? 

The Immortal Change of the Living Saints at 
the Last Day. 

We cannot do justice to this subject, without presenting 
the argument, drawn from the change those are to pass 
through who are alive upon the earth, when the time ar- 
rives for its accomplishment. Christ refers to these, in 
the conversation he had with Martha, at the grave of Laz- 
arus. " Jesus said unto her, thy brother shall rise again. 
Martha said unto Him, I know that he shall rise again in 
the resurrection at the last day. Jesus said unto her, I 
am the resurrection, and the life ; he that believeth in Me, 
though he were dead, yet shall he live ; and whosoever 
liveth, (at that time,) and believeth in Me, shall never die." 
John xi, 23 — 26. Paul brings out the subject more fully, 
thus: "Behold, I show you a mystery; we shall not all 
sleep (or die,) but we shall all be changed, (whether living 
or dead,) in a moment — in the twinkling of an eye, at the 
last trump ; for the trumpet shall sound, and the dead 
shall be raised incorruptable, and we shall be changed; 
for this corruptable must put. on incorruption, aud this 
mortal must put on immortality." — 1 Cor. xv, 51 — 53. 



Socrates and Plato. — Which? 



The two Adams. One Giving Death; the Other, 

Life. 

Here are men, as it is taught, who have mortal life, de- 
rived from Adam ; this life is temporary. But here is 
Christ, the second Adam, the Lord from heaven, and He 
gives His saints another life, which is immortal and eter- 
nal. This puts an end to the corruptible, mortal life in- 
herited from Adam. That life, made the first Adam and 
his offspring, " mortal souls," just as he was himself; for a 
man cannot transmit what he does not possess. But the 
life Christ now gives, is immortal and eternal, making 
those who receive it, immortal souls. 

u Neither can they die any more, being the children of 
the resurrection." Here, as we understand it, is the only 
true doctrine of " The immortality of the soul;" but, out 
of Christ, there is no immortality or eternal life, and not 
in Him, or by Him, until the resurrection of life ; and 
then to be conferred upon the righteous only. If men 
derive immortal souls from the first Adam, then Christ, 
the second Adam, confers nothing, for this is all He prom- 
ises to His saints ; therefore, Christ is of no importance to 
mankind. Indeed, Adam is superior, as he gives immor- 
tality to all, whether wicked or righteous, while Christ 
proposes to confer it upon the righteous only. 

The Platonic Distribution of Souls. 

Besides, as the first Adam is not a creator, and there- 
fore cannot make souls, and yet, if he transmits them to 
his posterity, they must have been all incorporated into 



102 Christ and Paul ; or, 

his own physical or spiritual constitution, and by natural 
generation, distributed to each member of the human fam- 
ily as they were born into the w T orld, each in the succes- 
sion inheriting one soul less ; but if this is the fact, then 
every human being who might have been born and was 
not, the soul that belonged to it must have died, and this, 
brings it in conflict with its immortality, by supposing it 
susceptible of death. We admit that this is a very com- 
plicated case, but we are only endeavoring to make the 
best possible case out of it, of which we are capable, and 
if it is still too complicated to be credible, it is not our 
fault, but that of the theory. The philosophy of Plato is 
less complicated, and as he was the author of this whole 
theory of natural immortality, we had better adopt it, if 
we cannot take that of Christ and Paul. 

He held, as we have seen, that God, the Supreme, made 
another subordinate deity or geni, and committed to him 
the work of making souls for men ; so He took a cup and 
mixed soul matter, and after He made souls for all the 
planets, He had some of it left, from which He made the 
souls for men, all at once, and imposed the duty on the 
subordinate deity to distribute one to each male who was 
born into the world ; but He made none for females ; they 
have no souls, according to this heathen philosophy, and 
therefore, are considered the mere slaves of men. 

Death not Death, but Separation — the Doctrine 
of the Devil. 

The philosophy of Plato, however, only suggests the 
question of the comparative superiority of his geni, and 
our deity, Adam, in the business and management of the 
distribution of souls; for it must be remembered that 



Socrates and Plato. — Which? 103 

Adam is not dead, but has become a god, who cannot 
die, just as the devil told him, if he would only obey 
him ; for as his soul was his life, and that was im- 
mortal, of course it could not die, for nothing but 
life can die. The soul, or life of Adam, only moved 
out of a clay tenement, into some other more congenial 
house, perhaps, and the body, or tenement, was never 
alive ; if it had been, it might have lived after the im- 
mortal soul had moved out, and if the body never lived, 
it never could have died, and if it never died, it could 
never be raised from the dead ; there is, therefore, no res- 
urrection of the body ; and if the soul never died, then 
there is no resurrection of the soul, and if the spirit never 
died, then it cannot be raised from the dead, and there- 
fore, there is no resurrection of the dead at all, and as 
Christ is not risen from the dead, He is still dead, and 
Christianity is a specious lie. Hence, we are driven to 
accept the heathen doctrine of natural immortality, and 
reject Christianity, or hold to that of Jesus and the resur- 
rection, which we propose to do, and with all the ability 
with which God has endowed us, endeavor to pull down 
these strongholds of satan, behind which he has en- 
trenched himself ever since his infernal foot trod the un- 
stained soil of Eden, and gave birth to the father-lie of 
the world. 

" Ye shall not surely die, 

Said one of old ; 
And that same cunning lie 

The priests have told," 



io4 Christ and Paul, or, 



Consciousness after Death, Wholly Supported by 
Inference. — Location of Paradise. 

That men are conscious after death, is wholly supported 
by a few passages which only admit of inference, and we 
propose not only to show, but when properly understood 
by taking everything said in connection with them into 
consideration, that they admit of no such inference, but 
add confirmation to our view. The first of these we will 
examine is, what Christ said to the thief on the cross, 
thus : " And he said unto Jesus, Lord, remember me when 
thou comest into thy kingdom ; and Jesus said unto him, 
verily, I say unto thee to-day, shalt thou be with Me in 
paradise." — Luke xxiii, 42 — 43. 

It will be observed that we have changed the comma 
from after the word "thee" in the answer of Jesus to the 
prayer, and placed it after the word "day." It must be 
remembered that the punctuation of the Bible was the 
work of man, and only done about three hundred years 
ago. This change, however, is not necessary in order to 
show that the passage is in harmony with all others refer- 
ing to paradise, it only conveys the idea taught, more 
readily. 

The penitent did not ask the Lord to remember him on 
that day in which both were crucified, but it was, "When 
thou comest into thy kingdom." It is fair to presume 
from this intelligent prayer, that the thief understood from 
Jesus, and probably from His discussion of the subject 
with Pilate, concerning His kingdom, that it was not of 
this world. "Now is My kingdom, not from hence," it 
does not now begin, " Hereafter shall the Son of Man sit 



Socrates and Plato. — Which? 105 

on the right of the power of God," etc. He was the " No- 
bleman traveling into a far country to receive for himself a 
kingdom, and to return," " Who shall judge the quick and 
the dead, at His appearing and His kingdom." — 2 Tim. 
iv, 1. In answer to the prayer, Jesus said, u Verily, I say 
unto thee to-day, thou shalt be with Me when I come into 
My kingdom, (and that kingdom is paradise, the New 
Heavens and the New Earth,) in which, with all My saints, 
I shall reign forever and ever. Then, verily thou shalt be 
with Me." We have already shown that Jesus Christ, the 
Lord, died, and lay in the grave three days from the cru- 
cifixion, and therefore, the grave must be paradise, if He 
went into it on the day of His crucifixion. 

For an answer to the inquiry, what it was that ascended 
into heaven, Paul declares : " It was the same that as- 
cended, that first descended into the lower parts of the 
earth," (grave.) Three days after this, he said, "Touch 
Me not, for I have not yet ascended to My Father." In 
fact, He did not leave the world until forty days afterward, 
and then we have the history of His ascension. Thus, 
everything in the Great Book is consistent, harmonious 
and intelligible, if we do not become wiser than its Author 
and assume to teach infinite wisdom. This is the very 
strongest passage upon which the Paganized, Papal, holy 
fathers tortured, to make it teach an intermediate place or 
state, called purgatory. 

Another of the passages containing the name paradise, 
is the following : " To him that overcometh will I give to 
eat of the tree of life, which is in the midst of the paradise 
of God." That the tree of life here, is a type of Christ, 
cannot be correct, for the reason that those who are to 
eat of it are those who overcome, and are the immortal in- 
habitants of the New Heavens and New Earth, and that 



io6 Christ and Paul ; or, 

they thus overcame, was, by eating Christ's flesh and drink- 
ing His blood ; or literally, who had been saved by belief in 
His death and resurrection, of which this was the result. 
That they had overcome by Christ's grace, gave them a 
right to partake or eat of the " Tree of life." The Chris- 
tian warfare is limited to the present life ; for there can 
be no strife among the dead, no belief or unbelief, in the 
grave. There, where once their Savior and Lord lay, shall 
the flesh of the saints also rest, in hope of a " better resur- 
rection." When God gave Job this inspired picture of 
his hope, he exclaimed, in ecstasy and enrapt interest, lest 
it should not be written and transmitted to the ages, " O 
that my words were now written ! O, that they were 
printed in a book ! that they were graven with an iron pen, 
and lead (leaded) in the rock forever ! For I know that my 
Redeemer liveth, and that He shall stand at the latter day 
upon the earth ; and though after my skin worms destroy 
this body, yet in my flesh shall I see God, whom I shall 
see for myself, and mine eyes shall behold (Him) and not 
another." — Job xix, 23 — 27. 

That this is the time when those who " overcome " ex- 
pected to be put in possession of their reward, and not at 
death, is also clearly shown by the closing words of the 
Spirit to this church, namely, that then they were to be 
given to eat of the tree of life, which was in the midst of 
the paradise of God. The question to be considered, in 
order to understand this passage, and truth, is, where is 
paradise ; for the tree of life grew in its midst, and if we 
can understand the location of the one, it will also be that 
of the other. 

In the first place, we remark, that the first two chapters 
of the Bible contain the history of the Eden World. 
" And God planted a garden eastward in Eden, (in the 



Socrates and Plato. — Which? 107 

east of the Eden world,) and there He put the man whom 
He had formed, and out of the ground made the Lord 
God to grow, the tree of life, and every tree that is pleas- 
ant to the sight, and good for food." — Gen ii, 8, 9. After 
the fatal fall, we read : " And the Lord God said, behold, 
the man is become as one of us, to know good and evil ; 
and now, lest he put forth his hand, and take also of the 
tree of life, and eat, and live forever; therefore, the Lord 
God sent him forth from the garden of Eden, and placed 
at the east of the garden of Eden, cherubims and a flam- 
ing sword, which turned every way, to keep the way of 
the tree of life." — Gen. iii, 24. 

That the world is to be restored to its Eden beauty and 
perfection, and that this determination God has caused 
every prophet to write, He ever inspired, we need only 
quote one passage to prove : " Repent ye, therefore, and 
be converted, that your sins may be blotted out, when the 
times of refreshing shall come from the presence of the 
Lord ; for He shall send Jesus Christ, which before was- 
preached unto you, whom the heaven must receive, until 
the times of restitution of all things, which God hath spoken 
by the mouth of all His holy prophets since the world be- 
gan." — Acts iii, 19 — 21. 

Perhaps we should quote one passage more, in this con- 
nection, which shows the manner of Christ's reception 
into heaven, as here stated, and of His coming, again, to 
thus restore the world, according to the universal voice of 
prophesy, which is this : " And when He had spoken 
these things, while they beheld, he was taken up ; and a 
cloud received Him out of their sight. And while they 
looked steadfastly toward heaven as He went up, behold, 
two men stood by them in white apparel, which also said, 
ye men of Galilee, why stand ye gazing up into heaven ? 



10S Christ and Paul ; or, 

This same Jesus, which is taken up from you into heaven, 
shall so come in like manner as ye have seen Him go into 
heaven." — Acts i, 9 — 11. We may also remark, that the 
last two chapters of the Bible contain the pre-historic 
record of the world thus restored, re-created, and with the 
curse taken away. That is the New Heaven and New 
Earth, constituting " The world to come." The present 
is the temporary world, to be folded up and changed — 
changed into the permanent, the eternal. That is the 
glorious kingdom of God, and when thus restored, it will 
be given unto the predestined inhabitants, thus : " Then 
shall the King say unto them on His right hand, come, ye 
blessed of My Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for 
you from the foundation of the world." — Matt, xxv, 34. 
Here, then, is the eternal abode of God, angels and im- 
mortal men, of which there is nothing more clearly and 
fully taught in the Bible. Hence, it is paradise restored. 

" And He showed me a pure river of water of life, clear 
as crystal, proceeding out of the throne of God and the 
Lamb. In the midst of the street of it, and on either side 
of the bank of the river, was there the tree of life, which 
bare twelve manner of fruits, and yielded her fruit every 
month ; and the leaves of the tree were for the healing of 
the nations. Blessed are they that do His commands 
ments, that they may have right to the tree of life, and 
enter in through the gates into the city."— Rev. xxii. 

Here we have the statements that the tree of life grew 
in the midst of the paradise of God, and that the tree of 
life grew in the New Heaven and New Earth ; therefore, 
the New Heaven and New Earth, and paradise, are one and 
the same place. In relation to the nature of the tree of 
life, we indulge no speculation, further than that which is 
written in the Scriptures of truth ; to understand this, is 



Socrates and Plato. — Which? 109 

the heighth of our ambition, concerning which, one thing is 
certain, that if Adam had eaten of this tree, he would have 
lived forever, and would have been an immortal soul, not- 
withstanding his sin, from which we may learn that it is a 
very easy thing for God to preserve even human life in- 
definitely, or make it everlasting life. In other words, 
that it would be just as easy lor God to make a tree or 
trees grow in the present world, whose chemical properties 
would possess healing virtue for all physical derangements, 
and to perpetuate youth, as to have made those whose 
properties possess the bane or poison of every life, and 
renders every muscle and fibre of the system slowly or 
suddenly rigid, immovable and dead. 

The only other passage which speaks of paradise, is a 
vision or revelation, given of it to the Apostle Paul, and 
which, as we shall see, confirms this view of its location. 
He says : " It is not expedient for me doubtless to glory. 
I will come to visions and revelations of the Lord. I 
knew a man in Christ above fourteen years ago, (whether 
in the body, I cannot tell, or whether out of the body, I 
cannot tell ; God knoweth ;) such a one caught up to the 
third heaven, and I knew such a man, (whether in the 
body, or out of the body, I cannot tell ; God knoweth ;) 
how that he was caught up into paradise, and heard un- 
speakable words, which it is impossible for a man to 
utter/' — 2 Cor. xii, 1 — 4. Here we see that the place, as 
the scene of this vision and revelation, is called paradise, 
and also the third heaven. Now, if we can find the loca- 
tion of the third heaven, it will be also that of paradise. 
We have already seen that paradise was the New Heaven 
and New Earth — the world to come, and succeeds that 
which now exists. The question is, does the Bible con- 
tain evidence for calling the 4i New Heaven" the third 



no Christ and Paul or, 

heaven. Let us turn to the Epistle of Peter, and we will 
find the following : " For this they willingly are ignorant 
of, that by the Word of God the heavens were of old, and 
the earth standing out of the water and in the water; 
whereby, the world that then w r as, being overflowed with 
water, perished/' Here was the first heaven, the Eden 
World, and this perished ; the flood so deranged that once 
beautiful globe, breaking up its entire surface, under the 
second curse of God, so that the present world compares 
so poorly with that, that it justifies the apostolic declara- 
tion, " The heaven and the earth which then were, * per- 
ished;' but the heavens and the earth which are now, by 
the same word, (doomed by the Word of God,) are kept 
in store, reserved unto fire against the day of judgment 
and perdition of ungodly men." Here is the second 
heaven and earth destined to pass the ordeal of a univer- 
sal conflagration. " Looking for, and hasting unto the 
coming of the day of God, wherein the heavens, being on 
fire, shall be dissolved, and the elements shall melt with 
fervent heat. Nevertheless, we, according to His promise, 
look for New Heavens and a New Earth, wherein dwell- 
eth righteousness. ,, — Chapter iii. Here, then, we have 
God's definition and locality of the third heaven, and of 
paradise. 

After the burning of the present world and its re-crea- 
tion into the world to come, as God promised, in the res- 
toration of all things, the Revelator gives us the following : 
" Death and hell were cast into the lake of fire, this is the 
second death, and whosoever was not found written in the 
Book of Life was cast into the lake of fire. And I saw a 
New Heaven and a New Earth, for the first heaven and 
the first earth w r ere past away." This first heaven passed 



Socrates and Plato. — Which? hi 

away with the burning day, just as the Eden heaven and 
earth passed away with the flood. " And I heard a great 
voice out of heaven, saying, behold, the tabernacle of God 
is with men, and He will dwell with them, and they shall 
be His people, and God himself shall be with them and be 
their God ; and He that sat upon the throne said, behold, 
I make all things new. And He said unto me, write, for 
these Words are true and faithful." Here is the third 
heaven — the New Heavens and the New Earth of Peter's 
prediction and Paul's vision, " In which dwelleth right- 
eousness, or in which the righteous forever dwell, not with 
the Spirit of God, but with 4 God himself.' " 

In regard to the words Paul heard in his vision, and 
which it was impossible to utter, in John's revelation he 
heard the same ; and it was more fully brought out by the 
latter. " And I looked, and lo, a Lamb stood on Mount 
Zion, and with Him a hundred and forty and four thou- 
sand, having their Father's name written in their fore- 
heads. And I heard a voice from heaven, as the voice of 
many waters, and as the voice of a great thunder; and I 
heard the voice of harpers, harping with their harps ; and 
they sung as it were a new song before the throne, and 
no man could learn that song, but the hundred and forty 
and four thousand which w r ere redeemed from the earth." 
— Rev. xiv. 

No man could utter the words heard by Paul, and no 
man could learn the words John heard sung. The place 
w 7 here Paul, in vision, heard them, was paradise and the 
third heaven. The place where John also heard them, in 
vision, was paradise, the third and New Heaven. With 
the curse taken away from the present world, and it re- 
stored to its original and paradisiacal beauty, and eternal 



H2 Christ and Paul ; or, 

duration. God's everlasting kingdom, established under 
the whole heaven, in which, when Christ comes into it, He 
is pledged to remember the thief, and admit him, with 
himself, into His kingdom. 

The Transfiguration, a Vision of Final Glory 
Beyond the Resurrection. 

Another of the passages which is supposed to teach that 
the dead are alive, is that of the transfiguration. This 
was a vision of Christ's, and the saints' appearance, when 
in their final glory, or when He comes into His kingdom, 
and in answer to the prayer, " Glorify thou Me with the 
glory I had with thee before the world was, with thine own 
self; then came a voice from heaven, saying, I have both 
glorified thee, and will also glorify thee again." The 
glory of His presence was so overwhelming, that when he 
spoke, the Revelator says : " I fell at His feet as dead." It 
is when He thus comes in His glory and kingdom, of 
which He gave some of His disciples a vision, in which 
He was transfigured. This is recorded as follows : 
" There be some standing here, which shall not taste of 
death till they see the Son of Man coming in His king- 
dom; and after six days, Jesus taketh Peter, James, and 
John, his brother, and bringeth them up into a high 
mountain apart, and was transfigured before them; and 
His face did shine as the sun, and His raiment was white 
as the light. And behold, there appeared Moses and 
Elias, talking with Him. Then answered Peter, and said 
unto Jesus, Lord, it is good for us to be here ; if thou 
wilt, let us make here three tabernacles ; one for thee, and 
one for Moses, and one for Elias. While he yet spake, 
behold, a bright cloud overshadowed them; and behold, 



Socrates and Plato. — Which? 113 

a voice out of the cloud, which said, this is My beloved 
Son, in whom I am well pleased ; hear ye Him. And 
when the disciples heard it, they fell on their faces and 
were sore afraid ; and Jesus came and touched them, and 
said, arise, and be not afraid ; and when they had lifted 
up their eyes, they saw no man, save Jesus only. And as 
they came down from the mountain, Jesus charged them, 
saying, tell the vision to no man, until the Son of Man be 
risen from the dead." — Chapter xvi, 27, 28, and chapter 
xvii, 1—9. 

" Trans " is a Latin preposition, used in English as a 
prefix, and signifies, over, beyond; the word transfigura- 
tion, therefore, means to pass over into a form beyond — 
to appear in a form which, at the time, does not exist, but 
which will exist in the future. 

Here the three disciples, the " some" of them who should 
not taste of death until they saw the Son of Man coming 
into His kingdom, according to Christ's promise, saw, in 
vision, Christ transfigured into that glorified form He will 
wear when He comes in the clouds of heaven with power 
and great glory, as He told the disciples, six days before, 
in which they should see Him. Now, as He did not then 
come, in reality, into His kingdom of power and glory, and 
is to thus come at the end of the world, therefore, the 
vision on the Mount, was these future scenes. They saw 
Moses and Elias living, having, as they will have at that 
time, come forth unto the resurrection of life. As they 
lay upon their faces, overpowered with the glory, Jesus 
came and touched them, and the vision was gone, and 
there was no man there but Jesus, and themselves. Luke 
says : " And behold, there talked with Him, two men, 
which were Moses and Elias, who appeared in glory, and 
spoke of His decease which He should accomplish at 



ii4 Christ and Paul; or, 

Jerusalem." Here Moses and Elias, as well as Christ, ap- 
peared in their glory. They were also transfigured into 
their resurrection, glorious form, and which will not take 
place until Christ comes in His glory, as is thus written : 
" For our conversation is in heaven, from whence also we 
look for the Saviour, the Lord Jesus Christ, who shall 
change our vile body, that it may be fashioned like unto 
His glorious oody y according to the working whereby He is 
able even to subdue all things unto himself." — Phil. iii. 
20 — 21; "It is sown in dishonor; it is raised in glory." 
— 1 Cor. xv, 43. 

Now, that Moses is not an exception to those who are 
to be glorified at the resurrection, (indeed, this compre- 
hends all the saints,) we introduce a passage, whereby 
Christ and Moses both show that it takes place at this 
event : " And Jesus answered and said unto them, the 
children of this world marry, and are given in marriage ; 
but they which shall be accounted worthy to obtain that 
World, and the resurrection from the dead, neither marry, 
nor are given in marriage ; neither can they die any more ; 
for they are the children of God, being the children of the 
resurrection. And that the dead are raised, even Moses 
showed, at the bush, when he called the Lord, the God of 
Abraham, and the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob, 
for He is not the God of the dead, but of the living." — 
Luke xx, 34 — 38. 

When are the Saints the Children of God ? 

Here we have the argument that the children of God 
are the children of the resurrection, because, from thence- 
forth they live, and cease to be dead, for He is not the 
God of the dead, but He is the God of the living. Abra- 



Socrates and Plato. — Which? 115 

ham, Isaac, Jacob and Moses are dead, and will remain 
dead until the resurrection, therefore, He is not their God 
now, and will not be while they are dead, for He is not 
the God of the dead ; but as God is here declared to be 
their God, and as He is only the God of the living, resur- 
rected saints, therefore, these dead men must live again. 
Hence, Moses showed the resurrection, by calling Him the 
God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, and whom he knew 
were dead, hence, must live again. Until this resurrec- 
tion of glory, honor, immortality and eternal life, the saints 
are the children ot God, by faith ; that is, they believe 
they shall then be God's children. Until then, they re- 
ceive the " spirit of adoption, whereby we cry, Abba, Father ; 
the Spirit itself beareth witness with our Spirit, that we are 
the children of God ; and if children, then heirs — heirs of 
God, and joint heirs with Christ, if so be that we suffer 
with Him, that we may be also glorified together ; for I 
reckon that the sufferings of this present time are not 
worthy to be compared with the glory which shall be re- 
vealed in us." — Rom. viii, 15 — 18. The glory is to be re- 
vealed in us, in our resurrection into Christ's glorious im- 
age. It is true, the saints are here called the children of 
God ; but the whole passage shows that the relation is one 
only of heirship, which waits for the inheritance, and it is 
to be awarded when Christ comes to be glorified in His 
saints. "We shall be glorified together," Moses included. 
Verse 23, we read thus : " Because the creature itself shall 
also be delivered from the bondage of corruption, into the 
glorious liberty of the children of God, (the resurrection 
from corruption to incorruption,) for we know that the 
whole creation groaneth and travaileth in pain together, 
until now ; and not only they, but ourselves also, which 
have the first fruits of the Spirit ; even we ourselves, groan 



u6 Christ and Paul; or, 

within ourselves, waiting for the adoption, to wit, the re- 
demption of our body." Here Paul declares that himself 
and all the saints have the spirit of adoption only, and all 
have a voice in the universal groaning for the adoption it- 
self, which he explains to be the redemption of our body. 
Then shall God be the God of Abraham and of Isaac, of 
Jacob and of Moses, and all the saints, because from that 
time forth " all live unto God." 

That it was the vision of the coming of Christ in His 
glory that was seen on the Mount of Transfiguration, is 
further proved by what Peter testifies concerning it, in his 
2d Epistle : " For we have not followed cunningly-devised 
fables, when we made known unto you the power and com- 
ing of our Lord Jesus Christ, but were eye witnesses of 
His majesty; for He received from God, the Father 
honor and glory, when there came such voice to Him from 
the excellent glory ; this is My beloved Son, in whom I 
am well pleased ; and this voice, which came from heaven, 
we heard, when we were with Him in the Holy Mount/* 
— ist, 1 6 — 1 8. 

How to Determine the Chronology of Events. 

In reference to the statement in the record of this vis- 
ion, that Moses and Elias talked with Christ concerning 
His approaching sufferings at Jerusalem, we may remark, 
that it is a very common thing in Scripture visions and 
revelations, to talk of things past, present, and future, as 
though they existed at the time they were seen. Hence, 
the angel of Jesus said to John, " I will show thee things 
which were, and are, and are to come." The chronolog- 
ical order of events, in any given vision, must be deter- 
mined by the nature and description of the events them- 



Socrates and Plato.— Which? 117 

selves, contained in any part of the Bible where the same 
subject is brought to view, every witness must be consult- 
ed, in order to arrive at the exact truth. In this vision, 
therefore, Christ and these two saints appeared glorified, 
.and in His glorious kingdom, when it comes in power. 

Elijah Died, in Common with all Men. 

It is supposed that in the case of the prophet Elijah, or 
Elias, that he is with God in heaven : but Christ said, 
"" No man hath ascended up into heaven, but the Son of 
Man, who came down from heaven." Hence, Elijah did 
not go there. The history of his ascension is as follows : 
"And it came to pass, as they still went on, and talked, 
that behold, there appeared a chariot of fire, and horses 
•of fire, and parted them both asunder, (Elijah and Elisha,) 
and Elijah went up by a whirlwind, into heaven. And 
Elisha saw it, and he cried, my father, my father; the 
•chariot of Israel and the horsemen thereof; and he saw 
him no more." — 2 Kings ii, n, 12. Here Elijah went up 
into the atmosphere, firmament, called heaven ; but not 
into the heaven where Christ is. That Elijah died, is also 
certain from this Scripture testimony : " Sin entered into 
the world, and death by sin, and so death passed upon all 
men, for all have sinned." 

" As in Adam all die, even so in Christ shall all be made 
alive ; but every one in his own order ; Christ the first 
fruits, afterward they that are Christ's at His coming." 
Elijah, therefore, died, and he did not receive his resur- 
rection, as Christ was the first fruits of them that slept, 
and Elijah is yet dead with the rest of the saints, waiting 
his resurrection. Paul, speaking of all the prophets, of 
*which Elijah was one, says : " These all died in faith, not 



n8 Christ and Paul ; or, 

having received the promises, but having seen them afar 
off, and were persuaded of them, and embraced them, and 
confessed that they were strangers and pilgrims on the 
earth, that they might obtain a better resurrection. " — 
Heb. xi. That he was a common, fallen mortal, is assert- 
ed thus : " Elias was a man subject to like passions as we 
are." — James v, 17. 

Enoch Died also, and Awaits his Resurrection 
and Translation. 

It is also supposed that Enoch, who was translated, did 
not die ; but if we carefully examine what is said of him,, 
and what the expressions mean, we shall find that there are 
no grounds for the belief. " And Enoch walked^ with God, 
and he was not, for God took him." — Gen. v, 24. In the 
first place, the expression, " he was not," means that he 
died. " And they said, thy servants are twelve brethren, 
the sons of one man in the land of Canaan ; and behold,, 
the youngest is this day with our father, and one, is not." 
— Gen. xlii, 13. The one that." is not," was Joseph, whom 
they supposed was dead. "Our fathers have sinned, and 
are not; and we have borne their iniquities." — Lam. v, 7. 
" Are not," declares they were dead, which was the fact. 
So Enoch "was not." "God took him," not to heaven, 
but out of the world of life. 

" I pray not that thou shouldst take them out of the 
world, but that thou shouldst keep them from the evil:'" 
— John xvii, 15. Christ prays that God would not take 
His children out of the world, out of life, as He took 
Enoch. The following passages show that Enoch died 
the same as other men : " Wherefore, as by one man, sin 
entered into the world, and death by sin ; and so death 



Socrates a\u Plato. — Which? 119 

passed upon all men, for that all have sinned. Neverthe- 
less, death reigned from Adam to Moses, (Enoch was in 
this period ;) even over them who had not sinned after the 
similitude of Adam's transgression." — Rom. v, 12, 14. 
Here is Paul's testimony, and settles the question that all 
of Adam's posterity sin and die, and that death passed 
upon Enoch as one of the "all men." Now, let us see 
what else Paul has to say concerning this case. ".By faith, 
Enoch was translated, that he should not see death ; and 
was not found, because God had translated him ; for, be- 
fore his translation, he had this testimony, that he pleased 
God." — Heb. ii, 5. The word "translation," means to 
change one thing into another, and in this case, we think, 
from mortality to immortality, and into the kingdom of 
God ; and to show that Enoch was to be thus translated, 
and that he was not an exception, but that all the saints 
share equally irl the same translation ; and at the same 
time, we quote again from Paul : " Giving thanks unto the 
Father, which hath made us meet to be partakers of the 
inheritance of the saints in light ; who hath delivered us 
from the power of darkness, and hath translated us into 
the kingdom of His dear Son." — Col. i, 12, 13. The in- 
heritance of the saints in light, is the New Heavens and 
New Earth ; this is also the destined kingdom of God's 
dear Son ; and the way into that, is the immortal resurrec- 
tion ; and by faith in Jesus Christ the saints have obtained 
a fitness for that inheritance. The truth, therefore, here 
taught, is, that having this faith, and which pleases God, 
" For without faith it is impossible to please God," all His 
saints have the promise that they shall be translated into 
the kingdom of God, when that kingdom comes, and while 
they live in the world, they are translated into it by faith ; 
that is, they believe they will be thus translated. Hence, 



-120 Chrjlst and Paul; or, 

" By faith, Enoch was translated, and it was that he should 
not see death, (the second death.)" His name, with that of 
Abel and all the ancient saints, was written " in the Lamb's 
Eook of Life, slain from the foundation of the world." 
" And another Book was opened, which is the Book of Life, 
and whosoever was not found written in the Book of Life 
was cast into the lake of fire." This is the second death. 
Hence, by faith, Enoch was translated, that he should not 
see the second death ; and if he did not thus die, he can- 
not be raised from the dead. The opposite supposition is 
absurd. 

After referring to Abel, Enoch, Noah, Moses and other 
notable saints, Paul declares, " These all died in faith, not 
having received the promises, (things promised,) but hav- 
ing seen them afar off, and were persuaded of them, and 
embraced them, and confessed that they were strangers 
and pilgrims on the earth." — Heb. xi, 13. He also adds, 
"That they might obtain a better resurrection." — Verse 
35. Here it is declared Enoch died in the faith that 
looked for a better resurrection, a better one than the 
wicked will have, through which he would be translated 
into the kingdom of God's dear Son, with all the other* 
saints. The expression of Paul, " He hath (present tense) 
translated us into the kingdom of God's dear Son," is ex- 
plained by the fact that it was by faith ; they have the 
faith that it would be accomplished, when and according 
to the promise of God. 

No Man Ever Went to God in Heaven. 

The words of Christ, " No man hath ascended up into 
heaven," are not at variance with what is declared of 
Elijah and Enoch, and these cases, therefore, afford no 
evidence for the conscious existence of the dead. 



Socrates and Plato. — Which? 121 



The Laws of Physiology and the Bible, Harmonize. 

In conclusion, we propose to show from the physiologi- 
cal laws of organic man, that when he dies, and whether it 
is denned to be death, or the separation of the mind and 
body, that all intellectual power as absolutely perishes as 
though it had never existed ; and, without a resurrection, 
which is really a new creation, will so forever remain. 
As introductory even to this purely scientific argument, 
we quote three passages of Scripture : " Whatsoever thy 
hand findeth to do, do it with thy might, for there is no 
work, nor device, nor knowledge, nor wisdom, in the 
grave, whither thou goest, (not his spirit, but the man him- 
self.)" — Eccl. ix, 10. " For the living know that they 
shall die, but the dead know not anything." — Verse 5. 
" Put not your trust in princes, nor in the son of man, in 
whom there is no help ; his breath goeth forth, he return- 
eth to his earth ; in that very day his thoughts perish." — 
Ps. cxlvi, 4. 

Physiology Connected with this Question. 

Man is generally represented as composed of body ; soul 
or life ; spirit and mind, which includes his moral powers, 
also called "the heart." The bodily division may be 
denominated the anatomical house, which contains, and 
to which are internally attached, the organs of life called 
vital, and those of intellect. If we except the spinal col- 
umn, we may say that any part of this bodily case may be, 
and has been, carried off without destroying the life or in- 
tellectual faculties of the individual. We do not mean 



122 Christ and Paul ; or, 

that the whole of these parts may be destroyed from a 
single individual, but that different parts from different in- 
dividuals. For example, all the limbs have been ampu- 
tated, portions of the ribs and sides ; indeed, all but those 
portions to which the vital organs are attached ; all parts 
of the cranium, the ears, nose, lips, jaws, cheeks, eyes, 
tongue, and skin, as well as one lobe of the brain, and 
without destroying life or intellect, thus demonstrating 
that none of these parts constitute the living or knowing 
faculties. It is, however, just as certain that this house is 
essential to the existence of life and intelligence, as that 
these exist at all. We may mention two facts in proof of 
this: 

First. — The vital organs are so hung to, and connected 
with the internal case, that to loose the attachment, would 
produce instant death. 

Second, — The spinal column constitutes part of the 
case itself; and further than this, it may be added, that 
the nerves branching from it, connect with all the organs 
of life and involuntary motion, and convey the electrical 
force from the brain to all, by which they are enabled to 
perform their various functions. 

The body, therefore, thus defined, although no part of 
the phenomena of life and intelligence, yet without it, 
neither can exist. 



What is the Soul? 

The second department of man, we are to consider, is 
life, and in an unlimited sense, comprehending the whole 
man, called " a living soul;" the question, therefore, is, 
what are we to understand by life ? As our example 
of investigation, let us take the first man that lived, the 



Socrates and Plato. — Which? 123 

short account of whose creation, is thus given : " And 
the Lord God formed man of the dust of the ground,, 
and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life ; and the 
man became a living soul." — Gen. ii, 7. Mark, it was 
not life which was breathed into him, but the breath of 
life; neither was it a living soul, forced into him ; but the 
formation and the animating breath made the man him- 
self "the living soul/' Nothing is more certain, both 
from physiological necessity and this language, than that 
it was common atmospheric air which was breathed into 
Adam; this, and nothing else, is man's "breath of life," 
as well as the breath of the life of every other animal ; 
give them access to this, and if their vital organs are per- 
fectly developed, they will live ; but prevent the air from 
entering the lungs through the mouth or nostrils, and no 
matter how perfectly they are developed, they will never 
see life. Suppose it was a living, thinking being, or sub- 
stance, which was breathed into man, and which dwelt in 
his organization as a tenant in a house, it would not have 
been life to him, as it would not have been his lungs, or 
heart, or the atmosphere, which are constituents of his 
life ; besides this, Adam would have lived after his forma- 
tion, by breathing common air, and he would also have 
been a thinking, feeling creature. Now, if another think- 
ing, feeling creature had been forced into his organization, 
there would have been two thinking, feeling creatures 
merged in one, and each would have preserved his own 
personal identity, and each have a will ; for any think- 
ing, intelligent thing, or substance, must have a will, and 
this again argues individual responsibility; hence, we have 
two independent beings, or call them what you please, 
dwelling in one body, but not incorporated into each 
other, as the life of one is not that of the other. 



124 Christ and Paul ; or, 



What is the Meaning of Spirit? 

It is scarcely necessary to consider the spirit of man as 
a separate object, for it must be obvious from what has 
already been said, that the spirit is simply atmospheric air, 
when entering an organic formation, made in accordance 
with the laws of life, so that it will animate all, and bring 
the thing to life, and it is precisely the same, whether in 
the lower animals or man, so far as life is concerned ; and 
it is as proper to say, a spirited horse, as a spirited man ; 
and it is as proper to call the animating properties of wine, 
" the spirit of wine," as it is to designate the animating 
principle of man or beast, the principle of either. It is 
also as proper to designate the affections of the lower an- 
imal, spiritual, as those of the higher animal, man ; and 
the terms lower and higher, express the only difference, 
that of degree. The lower organic creature — and it is in 
the scale of organism that makes it lower — having no 
thoughts high enough to take in the conception of its 
Maker, or even that it had a Maker, and, consequently, 
of any moral relations existing between them. 

The spirit, coming from the atmospheric heavens, as- 
cends by its specific gravity, while the solids of the animal, 
for the same reason, return to the ground ; both to the 
localities from whence they were taken. " The Lord God 
formed man of the dust of the ground, and breathed into 
his nostrils the breath of life, and the man became a living 
soul." — Gen. ii, 7. " Behold, I do bring a flood of waters 
upon the earth, to destroy all flesh, wherein is the breath 
of life." — Chapter vi, 17. " And all flesh died that moved 
upon the earth, both of fowl and cattle, and of every creep- 



Socrates and Plato. — Which? 125 

ing thing, in whose nostrils was the breath of life, both 
man and cattle, and creeping thing died."— Chapter vii, 
21. Here man and every living thing had, in common, in 
its nostrils, the breath of life, and though it is not said of 
the lower animals, as in the case of Adam, that God 
breathed it into them, yet it is just as certain that He did 
it, as it is that they had it ; and in each case it was the 
breath of life, and was in their nostrils, which means sim- 
ply that they inhaled and exhaled the air, or breathed 
the breath of life. 

" And it came to pass, that the son of the woman, the 
mistress of the house, fell sick ; and his sickness was so 
sore, that there was no breath left in him." — 1 Kings xvii, 
17. "In whose hand is the soul of every living thing, 
(every living thing has a soul, then,) and the breath of 
all mankind." — Job xii, 10. "The Spirit of God hath 
made me, and the breath of the Almighty hath given me 
life." — Job xxxiii, 4. The wind and air are often called 
the breath of the Lord. Here is an instance : " The chan- 
nels of the sea appeared; the foundations of the w r orld 
were discovered, at the rebuking of the Lord, at the blast 
of the breath of His nostrils." — 2 Sam. xxii, 16. Here is 
another : " Thou didst blow with thy wind ; the sea cov- 
ered them ; with the blast of thy nostrils the waters were 
gathered together, the floods stood upright as a heap, and 
the depths were congealed in the heart of the sea."- — Ex. 
xv, 8, 12. Here we have the fact stated, that it was the 
wind, the air, the breath of God, represented as breathing 
through His nostrils, by which He divided the waters of 
the Red Sea, which He also breathed into Adam, and into 
every beast, and moving, creeping thing, upon the earth ; 
all have it in common, and which is the " breath of life " 
of everything that lives. 



126 Christ and Paul ; or, 

" By the breath of God, frost is given, and the breath 
of the waters is straightened." — Job. xxxvii, to. Here 
the breath of God is cold air. " His breath kindleth coals, 
and a flame goeth out of His mouth." — Job xli, 21. Here 
God's breath is hot air, and not immortality. 

" By the Word of the Lord were the heavens made, and 
all the host of them by the breath of His mouth." — Ps. 
xxxiii,. 6. It is here the same thing as the Spirit of God. 
"And the Spirit of God moved upon the face of the 
waters." — Gen. i, 2. " Thou hidest thy face, they are 
troubled ; thou takest away their breath, they die, and re- 
turn to their dust. Thou sendeth forth thy Spirit, they are 
created; and thou renewest the face of the earth." — Ps. 
civ, 29, 30. It is the breath of life ; take it away, and there- 
fore, " they die." His breath goeth forth, he returneth to 
his earth; in that very day his thoughts perish."— Ps. 
cxlvi, 4. He can no more breathe, and he dies, and when 
he dies, his power to think, perishes ; and as Paul declares, 
will remain perished until the resurrection, even all those 
which have fallen asleep in Christ. 

"I said in mine heart, God shall judge the righteous 
and the wicked ; for there is a time there for every pur- 
pose and for every work. I said in mine heart, concern- 
ing the estate of the sons of men, that God might mani- 
fest them, and that they might see that they themselves 
are beasts. For that which befalleth the sons of men, be- 
falleth beasts ; even one thing befalleth them ; as the one 
dieth, so dieth the other ; yea, they all have one breath ; 
so that a man hath no pre-eminence above a beast ; all go 
unto one place ; all are of the dust, and all turn to dust 
again. Who knoweth the spirit of a man, that goeth up- 
ward, and the spirit of a, beast, that goeth downward to 



Socrates and Plato. — Which? 127 

the earth?" — Eccl. iii, 18 — 21. Here we have the facts 
stated, that so far as the life, death, and breath, or spirit of 
a man and the lower animals are concerned, he has no pre- 
eminence above them; both have the same natural life, 
both have the same spirit, both die alike, both go to the 
same place, both turn to dust ; perfectly refuting the notion 
that the spirit of man goeth upward, and the spirit of a 
beast goeth downward to the earth, and which the very 
expression admits to be the same which the heathen pre- 
tended to know was a fact ; nay, they both go to the dust 
and await the resurrection and the judgment at the last 
day, just as this passage sets forth. The only going up of 
the spirit, and it applies equally to man or beast, is, the 
gravity of the atmospheric breath, and the solids of which 
they are composed, and which is refuted by the very 
question itself. 

Objection, " Lord Jesus, Receive my Spirit," Con- 
sidered. 

There is a seeming objection to this Scripture, in the 
w r ords supposed to have been spoken by the martyr Steph- 
en, "Lord Jesus, receive my spirit;" but on close exam- 
ination, it will be seen that they were uttered in derision 
of what he had before said about seeing the glory of God, 
and Jesus standing on the right hand of God, After he 
had said this, then follows what the persecutors said, thus : 
" Then they cried out with a loud voice, and stopped their 
ears, and ran upon him with one accord, and cast him out 
of the city, and stoned Stephen, calling upon God, and 
saying, Lord Jesus, receive my spirit." Then follows 
Avhat Stephen said : " And he kneeled down and cried with 



128 Christ and Paul ; or, 

a loud voice, Lord, lay not this sin to their charge ; and 
when he had said this, he fell asleep." — Acts vii, 55 — 60. 
" Seeing He giveth to all life and breath. " — Acts xvii, 25. 



Wind, Breath, and Spirit, Meaning the Same. 

In order to show still further that the words, wind, 
breath and spirit, are used interchangeably, not only when 
describing the present, mortal life, but also the resurrec- 
tion life of His saints, we introduce Ezekiel's vision of that 
work, thus : " The hand of the Lord was upon me, and 
carried me out in the Spirit of the Lord, and set me down 
in the midst of the valley which was full of bones ; and 
behold, there were very many in the open valley; and lo, 
they were very dry. And He said unto me, son of man, 
can these bones live? And I answered, O Lord God, 
thou knowest. Again He said unto me, prophesy upon 
these bones, and say unto them, O, ye dry bones, hear ye 
the Word of the Lord. This saith the Lord God unto 
these bones, behold, I will cause breath to enter into you, 
and ye shall live ; (this is the same form of expression as 
' The Lord God breathed into him the breath of life/ as 
in the case of Adam,) and I will lay sinews upon you, and 
I will bring up flesh upon you, and cover you with skin, 
and put breath in you, and ye shall live ; and ye shall 
know that I am the Lord. So I prophesied as I was com- 
manded ; and as I prophesied, there was a noise, and be- 
hold, a shaking, and the bones came together, bone to his 
bone, and when I beheld, lo, the sinews and the flesh came 
up upon them ; but there was no breath in them. (They 
were in the same organic formation as Adam, before the 
breath of life was forced into his nostrils ; possessing lungs, 
heart, stomach, liver, and, indeed, every vital organ, with- 



Socrates and Plato. — Which? 129 

out which he could not have drawn the second breath, 
and, therefore, it could not have been the breath of life to 
him, or any living thing.) Then said He unto me, proph- 
esy unto the wind, and say to the wind, thus saith the 
Lord God, come from the four winds, Obreath, and breathe 
upon these slain, that they may live. So I prophesied as 
He commanded me, and the breath came into them, and 
they lived, and stood upon their feet, an exceeding great 
army. Then said He unto me, son of man, these bones 
are the whole house of Israel. (All who have the faith of 
Israel, for which reason he was thus named, ' Thy name 
shall no more be called Jacob, but Israel ; for as a prince 
hast thou power, and hast prevailed with God and man.') 
Behold, they say, our bones are dried, and our hope is 
lost ; we are cut off for our parts. (' For the hope of the 
fathers, that there should be a resurrection of the dead, I 
am called in question of the Jews.'- — Paul. ' If there be 
no resurrection of the dead, then they that have fallen 
.asleep in Christ have perished.' — Paul.) Therefore, 
prophesy and say unto them, thus saith the Lord God, be- 
hold, O my people, I will open your graves, and cause you 
to come up out of your graves, and bring you into the 
land of Israel; and ye shall know that I am the Lord, 
when I have opened your graves, O my people, and brought 
you up out of your graves, and shall put my Spirit (or 
breath) in you, and ye shall live, and I shall place you in 
your own land ; then shall ye know that I, the Lord, have 
spoken it, and performed it, saith the Lord." — Ez. xxxvii, 
1 — 13. This land is the heavenly country promised to 
Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, and to Abraham's seed, which 
means Christ, and all who believe in Him, are counted to 
Abraham for the seed. "They that are of faith are the 
children of Abraham," therefore, he is the father of the 



130 Christ and Paul; or, 

faithful. These all died in the faith, not having received 
so much of the land promised them for an everlasting 
possession, as to set a foot on, and they looked for a better 
resurrection, through which to enter into the heavenly 
country, the New Heavens and the New Earth. Here we 
see that which gives the resurrection saints life, is called 
wind, breath and spirit. 

Etymology of the Word Spirit. 

The Latin spiritus, to breathe, to blow. The primitive 
sense is, to rush or drive. Primarily, wind, air in motion ; 
hence, breath. " All bodies have spirits and pneumatical 
parts within them."— Bacon. See Webster. 

The most primitive use of the word is in the creation of 
Adam, and the reason why it has been made to mean any- 
thing else, as the animating principle of all living things, 
is its corruption, to suit the silly notion of heathen philos- 
ophy, that man's life is not like the life of other animals, 
but that it is an immortal, immaterial substance, to which 
the name spirit has been applied. The pure, original 
and Bible sense, is, that it describes a material substance, 
"wind, breath" but the modern use of it is, to describe, 
immateriality, that is " //<?/ matter," and, therefore, nothing. 
Now, as nothing but matter can fill any part of space, im- 
materiality has no existence in any part of space ; it is, 
therefore, the strongest possible term to express annihila- 
tion ; but the first of these definitions is that of the Bible, 
while the other, and exactly the contrary one, belongs to 
heathen fables. 



Socrates and Plato. — Which? 131 



Thought Depends upon Life, Life upon Organ- 
ization. 

Here, then, we have the physiological divisions of 
organic man, having a body, enclosing the vital organs 
and those constituting the mind ; these, animated by 
breathing common atmospheric air, is the spirit of life, re- 
sulting from these thus living is, the feeling and thinking 
being, man. It is obvious, that, if the knowing department 
is not the living, and it could be separated from it, that it 
would be incapable of thought, and the man would cease 
to be intelligent, and so remain, while the living depart- 
ment was dead. Suppose that, after Adam had been 
formed with all the organs of life, he had been deprived 
of access to atmospheric air, or that it had not been 
forced into his lungs, would he have ever had a thought ? 
Or, suppose that breath had been forced into his body, 
and that it contained no lungs, could he have ever drawn 
the second breath, and would he not, therefore, have been 
forever incapable of thought ? Is it not also a fact that 
if the lungs are taken out of a man, that all thought 
ceases, which would not be the case if the thinking de- 
partment had life in itself; and if this experiment had 
been performed upon Adam, would he not have been as 
incapable of thought, as though the lungs had been left 
out of his creation ? 

Here we see that the interdependence of these parts 
are such, that neither can be dispensed with, and man be 
capable of thought, and therefore of intelligence. For 
instance, the voluntary bodily instruments, and anatomical 



132 Christ and Paul ; or, 

house, are an essential enclosure for the vital organs, hold- 
ing and suspending them in their relative and necessary 
positions. 



All the Vital Organs Parts of Life. 

The vital organs are essential, to enable the man to 
breathe. The breathing is essential, to oxydize and elec- 
trify the blood ; indeed, to make it blood at all. The cir- 
culation of the blood is essential to life, and the heart is 
essential to the circulation, and the circulation, to life. 
The electrical voluntary and involuntary forces are essen- 
tial, to enable the two sets of nerves to perform their func- 
tions, as well as the nerves of sensation, which makes feel- 
ing possible. The existence of the two brains, cerebrum 
and cerebellum, the sources of the voluntary and involun- 
tary nerves, and reservoir of the electrical forces, are also 
essential to life and thought. The spinal column, with its 
branching pairs of nerves leading to the vital organs, is 
the essential medium of communication between the an- 
terior involuntary brain and the organs of life, and the 
posterior brain and the instruments of locomotion, or 
volition, as well as to supply this brain with the power to 
think, and thought is essential to the existence of feeling, 
feeling to motive, and motive to action. 

Here we have an exemplification of the reason why the 
prophet made the acknowledgment : " For I am fearfully 
and wonderfully made." — Ps. cxl, 14. And we have the 
conclusion, that the being receives an impression from the 
outward world, through one of the five senses, before he 
thinks ; he thinks before he concludes ; he concludes before 
he wills ; he wills before he acts ; but the brain receives its 
electric force from the breath, through the lungs, as it has 



Socrates and Plato. — Which? 133 

nerves leading to the lungs, as well as the involuntary 
brain, so that the lungs may continue to breathe when the 
mind is asleep ; the lungs are, therefore, essential, to furnish 
the brain with the power to think ; and all the vital organs 
are essential, to enable the lungs to innate and exhale the 
air ; therefore, there can be no thought without life, and 
no life without organs, and the knowing department of 
man not being the living department, thought cannot ex- 
ist when the living department is dead. Hence, the great 
scientist declared of man : " His breath goeth forth, he re- 
turneth to his earth ; in that very day his thoughts perish." 
— Ps. cxlvi, 4. Here we have the science of man's life, 
death, and intelligence, and as we see, most perfectly, cor- 
responds with the Bible statements of his nature, and 
these are the only sources of reliable information upon the 
subject, and perfectly contradict the heathen views, which 
cannot, therefore, be true. 

The advocates for the endless, conscious torments of 
the wicked, as we have seen, select a few expressions, 
found in passages, which, at best, only admit of inference 
in its favor, and either from ignorance, or pride of opinion, 
give them a false interpretation, because palpably conflict- 
ing with other positive declarations upon the same subject. 
For an example, Christ says of the wicked at the judg- 
ment : " These shall go away into everlasting punishment." 
Well, Paul was inspired to write: "Who shall be pun- 
ished with everlasting destruction." But, they say, that 
means everlasting preservation in suffering; well, if it 
does mean this, then the destruction, or preservation, will 
never come to an end ; but, to show the fallacy of this 
prevarication, God inspired another prophet to write this : 
" Thou hast destroyed the wicked, thou hast put out their 
name, forever and ever ; destructions are come to a per- 



134 Christ and Paul ; or, 

petual end." — Ps. ix, 5, 6. Therefore, the everlasting de- 
struction, call it what you will, has come to a perpetual 
end. It has ceased, with all the destructions. Their very 
names, have perished ; God has put them out, forever and 
ever. Now, it is impossible to put out the names of men,, 
as long as the men themselves exist. From these infer- 
ences, they conclude that the wicked suffer conscious 
agony, without end, and as this makes them live forever, 
they, therefore, give them eternal life, and as this implies 
immortal, not mortal life, the wicked are therefore pro- 
nounced to be immortal, though the Apostle was inspired 
to write: " God only hath immortality," and He has never 
promised to give this great boon to the wicked ; but always 
to the righteous, as a reward for their suffering for His 
sake. Now, having given the wicked, immortality and 
eternal life, they then argue, that as they cannot cease to* 
live, they cannot cease to suffer; therefore, their tor- 
ments are endless. Such is the sophistry which weekly 
pours from the pulpits of the land ; and we do not hesi- 
tate to say, that these same men would be ashamed to so 
pervert the teachings of any other book than the Bible, 
which, if they read it at all, they cannot but see that the 
least infraction, or change of God's Words, by His servants, 
in declaring even the national punishment pronounced 
against the wicked, invariably met with the severest pun- 
ishment ; where then, will such appear, who thus put light 
for darkness and darkness for light, when He makes in- 
quisition who has declared, " Heaven and earth shall pass 
away, but My Words shall not pass away." — Matt, xxiv, 35. 
" For, verily I say unto you, till heaven and earth pass, 
one jot or one tittle shall in no wise pass from the law, till 
all be fulfilled."— Matt, v, 18. 



Socrates and Plato. — Which? 135 



The Immortality of the Soul Shown to be Absurd 
by the Word of God. 

To expose the error that the soul is immortal, and that 
its glaring absurdity may be seen still further by every 
one, we have only to insert the qualifying word "immor- 
tal " before that of soul, where the latter is used in the 
Bible ; for if it teaches that the soul is immortal, then, wher- 
ever the word soul occurs, that of immortal is implied. 
We will, therefore, thus supply it, in the following exam- 
ples : "The (immortal) soul that sinneth, it shall die." — 
Ez. xviii, 4. Here, an immortal soul can die, which is an 
impossibility ; for, to die, would show it to be mortal ; not 
mortal, is what the word means. " But if the priest buy 
any (immortal) soul with his money." — Lev. xxii, 2. Here 
immortal souls may be bought and sold for money. Soc- 
rates thought it w 7 ould be a difficult undertaking to catch 
his soul, which would be necessary, in order to deliver the 
strange merchandise to the purchaser. " The (immortal) 
soul of King David longed to go forth unto Absalom." — 
2 Sam. xiii, 29. Now, Absalom was dead, and the im- 
mortal soul of David longed to be dead also. " He made 
a way to His anger ; He spared not their (immortal) soul 
from death."— Ps. lxxxiii, 50. Consequently, their im- 
mortal souls died; they were, therefore, mortal. "Their 
(immortal) soul melted because of trouble."— Ps. cvii, 26. 
"Whereas, the sword reacheth unto the (immortal) soul." 
— Jer. iv, 10. Cato says : 

"The soul secured in her existence, 
Smiles at the drawn dagger 
And defies its point." 



136 Christ and Paul ; or, 

" They have given their pleasant things for meat to re- 
lieve the (immortal) soul." — Lam. i, 1 1. If they had not 
possessed these pleasant things, their immortal souls would 
have starved for the want of food. " Fear Him which is 
able to destroy both (immortal) soul and body in hell." — 
Matt, x, 28. No, Christ, you are mistaken in your sup- 
posed power, for the soul is " indestructible." " And the 
multitude of them that believed were of one (immortal) 
soul." — Acts iv, 32. Here were a multitude of immortal 
souls, consolidated into one. " He which converteth the 
sinner from the error of his way, shall save a (immortal) 
soul from death." — James v, 20. No, James, it is a mis- 
take, for the soul is deathless. "Yea, his (immortal) soul 
draweth near unto the grave." — Job xxxiii, 22. Then the 
immortal soul goes into the grave, and this proves it is 
mortal. " Because he hath poured out his (immortal) soul 
unto death." — Isa. liii, 12. " He, seeing this before, spake 
of the resurrection of Christ, that His (immortal) soul was 
not left in hell, (the grave.)" — Acts ii, 31. Here, Christ's 
soul was poured out unto death, and was dead in the 
grave, and would forever have remained there, had not 
the resurrection taken Him from it. " Though I were 
perfect, yet would I not know my (immortal) soul." 
— Job ix, 21. As the soul is the man himself, Job says, I 
would not know myself, though I were perfect. Such 
perfection would make Job so ignorant that he would not 
know himself. " My (immortal) soul is weary of my life." 
— Job x, 1. The soul, then, is not the life ; but Job him- 
self, being the soul, he was weary of his life. " And now 
my (immortal) soul is poured out upon me." — Job xxx, 
16. "So shall they be life unto my (immortal) soul." — 
Prov. iii, 21. Life, therefore, is not the soul, for these 
were to be life to his soul. " For thou hast delivered my 



Socrates and Plato. — Which? 137 

(immortal) soul from death." — Ps. lvi, 13. No, David, 
God could not have delivered your soul from death, for it 
is deathless. " Save me, O God, for the waters are come 
in unto my (immortal) soul." — Ps. lxix, 1. Do not be 
afraid, David ; your soul is immortal, and, therefore, waters 
cannot drown it. " Let my (immortal) soul live, and it 
shall praise thee." — Ps. cxix, 175. This inspired prayer 
is without sense, for the soul is ever-living. "I- have 
given the dearly beloved of my (immortal) soul into the 
hand of her enemies." — Jer. xii, 7. I have given the 
dearly beloved of my (immortal) self, is the idea. Hence, 
he himself is immortal; but as he himself died, he was, 
therefore, not immortal. " My (immortal) soul desired 
the first ripe fruit." — Mi. vii, 1. His soul could not have 
been immaterial, as it desired material food. " I will say 
to my (immortal) soul, (immortal) soul, thou hast much 
goods laid up for many years ; take thine ease ; eat, drink, 
and be merry." — Luke xii, 19. This man's (immortal) 
soul could eat and drink material food, and therefore was 
not an immaterial thing. " Yea, a sword shall pierce 
through thy (immortal) soul." — Luke ii, 25. Suppose it 
did, a sword couldn't kill, or in the least, wound an im- 
mortal thing. " But now our (immortal) soul is dried 
away." — Num. xi, 6. To dry a thing away, is to evaporate 
it into its elements ; therefore, the soul may be unmade. 
"To slay the (immortal) souls that should not die." — Ez. 
xiii, 19. If the soul may be slain, it is not immortal. 
"So, being affectionately desirous of you, we were willing 
to have imparted unto you, not the Gospel of God, but 
also our own (immortal) souls." — 1 Thess. ii, 8. The im- 
mortal soul was something, according to this, that might 
have been given to another. " And when he had opened 
the fifth seal, I saw under the altar the (immortal) souls of 



138 Christ and Paul ; or, 

them (of the living — from among the living members of 
the church who were not slain) that were slain for the 
Word of God." — Rev. vi, 9. " And the second angel 
poured out his vial upon the sea, and it became as the 
blood of a dead man ; and every living (immortal) soul 
died in the sea." — Rev. xvi, 3. The sea is a symbol of 
people. " And the waters which thou sawest, are peoples, 
nations, multitudes and kings." Under the pouring out 
of this vial, all these immortal souls died. "As it is writ- 
ten, the first man, Adam, was made a living (immortal) 
soul." — 1 Cor. xv, 45. Yet the man, Adam, died. "And 
all the days that Adam lived, were nine hundred and thirty 
years, and he died." — Gen. v, 5. 

We see by these absurdities, that the soul cannot be 
immortal, according to the teachings of the Scriptures. 
There are a very few instances in which the word soul 
means the same as that of spirit ; but in almost every case, 
it is used to designate the whole living man, and is in per- 
fect accord with God's definition of the word, the first 
time it was ever used. " And the Lord God formed man 
of the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils 
the breath of life, and the man became a living soul." 
There were eight souls saved in the ark from drowning — 
the eight persons of Noah's family. There were about 
three thousand souls — three thousand persons, added to 
the church on the Day of Pentecost. In fact, you may 
substitute persons for souls, in almost every passage in the 
Bible where " soul " occurs, and it will not change the 
sense, as it always signifies the living man himself, and not 
a part of him. 



Socrates and Plato. — Which? 139 



That the Spirit is Immortal, also Shown to be 
Absurd, by the Scriptures. 

There is another class of interpreters who claim that 
it is not the soul, but the spirit, which is the immortal 
part of man ; and, therefore, whenever the word spirit is 
used in the Bible, that of " immortal " is understood. In 
order to expose this error also, all we have to do is to 
supply the word "immortal," to that of spirit, making it 
read, immortal spirit. We may remark here, that we hold 
this to be an infallible rule of interpreting Scripture 
phrases, and leaves no work for the self-conceited pride 
of man's wisdom, "which is foolishness with God," and 
which is sure to be such, if it contradicts the "Word of 
God." 

Webster defines "Spirit" thus: "Esprit, French." 
" Spirito, Italian." " Espiritu, Spanish." " Spiritus, Latin." 
The primitive sense is, to rush or drive, and signifies the 
wind in motion ; to blow, to breathe. Hence, breath. 

"All bodies have spirits and pneumatical parts within 
them." — Bacon. Therefore, it means disposition. A 
generous spirit. A revengeful spirit. "The ornament of 
a meek and quiet spirit." That which hath power or 
energy ; the quality of any substance, which manifests life, 
activity, or the power of strongly affecting other bodies ; as 
the spirit of wine, or of any liquor. To animate, or act- 
uate or excite. 

The word spirit is used in the Bible to signify every one 
of these phenomena, and if it means the immortal part 
of man, then it means the immortal part of every other 
animal — the animating, immortal part of every plant, 



140 Christ and Paul ; or, 

and even the immortal energy of intoxicating wine, and 
even the chemical affinities of inanimate or inorganic 
bodies; each has an "immortal spirit." 

We have seen that, in the case of Adam, his soul was 
the whole living man, while the wind, breath, air, or spirit, 
was only a part of his life. That all the animals, in com- 
mon with Adam had the breath of life in their nostrils, is 
God's own declaration. " For yet seven days, and I will 
cause it to rain upon the earth forty days and forty nights ; 
and every living substance that I have made, will I destroy 
from off the face of the earth ; and the mountains were 
covered; and all flesh died that moved upon the earth, 
both of fowl, and of cattle, and of beast, and of every 
creeping thing that creepeth upon the earth, and every 
man, all in whose nostrils w r as the breath of life — of all 
that was in dry land died." — Gen. vii, 4, 21, 22. 

Here was the breath of life in the nostrils of every 
creeping thing, as well as in the nostrils of man; there- 
fore, every living beast, all cattle, and every insect, has the 
same breath, and in the same organs, as man, and if it is 
a part of God — the divine essence ; in man, it is a part of 
God, and of divine essence, equally in every creeping in- 
sect upon earth. If it is an immortal spirit in man's nos- 
trils, so is it the immortal spirit of the beast. It is also 
equally taught, that God created the lower animals. 
? And God created great whales." — Chapter i, 21. In the 
case of Adam, it is said, " God breathed the breath of life 
into his nostrils;" and does not say how he forced it into 
the other animals, but that does not alter the fact that 
they both had it equally, and both received it as the act 
of God, in their creation. Of course, these Scripture 
statements settle the question as to man's having an im- 
mortal spirit, or God-essence, which distinguishes him 



Socrates and Plato. — Which? 141 

from the lower animals, or even the lowest animalcule that 
moves, or insect that creeps, upon earth, and leaves those 
who still hold to the heathen doctrine of the natural im- 
mortality of the soul, or spirit, the only alternative, of 
denying the Words of God. 

But, to corroborate these statements of the creation, and 
expose the heathen notion of the immortality of the spirit 
of man, we proceed to consider a number of passages 
where the word spirit occurs, and qualify it by that of im- 
mortal. " Who knoweth the (immortal) spirit of a beast 
that goeth downward to the earth." — Ecc. iii, 21. " The 
(immortal) spirit of Egypt, shall fail." — Isa. xix, 3. " For 
the Lord hath poured out upon you the (immortal) spirit 
of deep sleep." — Isa. xxix, 10. " Thus saith the Lord 
God, He that giveth breath unto the people upon it, and 
(immortal) spirit to them that walk therein." — Isa. xlii, 5. 
" He formeth the (immortal) spirit of man within him.'* 
This shows that the spirit is a part of the living formation. 
" But He turned and rebuked them, and said, ye know 
not what manner of (immortal) spirit ye are of." — Luke 
ix, 55. "And behold, there was a woman which had a 
(immortal) spirit of infirmity eighteen years." — Luke xiii, 
2. "The words that I speak unto you, they are (immor- 
tal) spirit." — John vi, 62. "Now we have received not 
the (immortal) spirit of the world." — 1 Cor. ii, 12. " Or, 
if ye receive another (immortal) spirit which ye have not 
received." — 2 Cor. xi, 4. "The (immortal) spirit in us 
lusteth to envy." — James iv, 5. "Ye have not received 
the (immortal) spirit of bondage." — Rom. viii, 15. "When 
the Lord shall have washed away the filth of the daughter 
of Zion, and shall have purged the blood of Jerusalem 
from the midst thereof, by the (immortal) spirit of judg- 
ment, and by the (immortal) spirit of burning." — Isa. vi, 



142 Christ and Paul ; or, 

4. " And it came to pass, as we went to prayer, a certain 
damsel, possessed with a (immortal) spirit of divination, 
met us, which brought her masters much gain by sooth-say-- 
ing." — Acts xvi, 16. This was by holding seances. " The 
(immortal) spirit of God was in my nostrils." — Job xxvii, 3. 
"And as they thus spake, Jesus himself stood in the midst 
of them, and saith unto them, Peace be unto you ; and they 
were terrified and affrighted, and supposed they had seen a 
(immortal) spirit. And He said unto them, why are ye 
troubled? and why do thoughts (such thoughts of heath- 
enism) arise in your hearts ? Behold My hands and My 
feet, that it is I myself, and not a (immortal) spirit ; han- 
dle Me, and see ; for a (immortal) spirit hath not flesh and 
bones, as ye see Me have." — Luke xxiv, 36 — 39. "When 
Jesus saw that the people came running together, He re- 
buked the foul (immortal) spirit, saying unto him, thou 
dumb and deaf (immortal) spirit, I charge thee, come out 
of him, and enter no more into him ; and the (immortal) 
spirit cried, and rent him sore, and came out of him ; and 
he was as one dead, inasmuch as many said, he is dead." 
— Luke ix, 25, 26. It seems from this, that a man may 
live, after he loses his immortal spirit. " And I saw three 
unclean (immortal) spirits, like frogs, come out of the 
mouth of the dragon, and out of the mouth of the beast, 
and out of the mouth of the false prophet ; for they are 
the (immortal) spirits of devils." — Rev. xvi, 13, 14. These 
immortal spirits, looked like frogs, and were the immortal 
spirits of devils, but the devils themselves are also held to 
be immortal spirits. Hence, they were immortal spirits of 
immortal spirits ; this is good spiritualism. " When the 
unclean (immortal) spirit is gone out of a man, he walketh 
through dry places, seeking rest, and finding none. Then 



Socrates and Plato. — Which? 143 

he saith, I will return into my house from whence I came 
out ; and when he is come* he findeth it empty, swept, 
and garnished. Then goeth he, and taketh with himself, 
seven other (immortal) spirits, more wicked than himself, 
and they enter in and dwell there ; and the last state of 
that man is worse than the first." — Matt. xii,. 43, 44. 
Here is a man who had eight immortal spirits, besides his 
own, and the sequel showed that the more immortal spirits 
a man had, the worse he was off. There can be no doubt 
but that this man was a most wonderful medium. " Nor 
was their (immortal) spirit in them." — Job v, 1. "There 
was no (immortal) spirit in her." — 1 Kings x, 5. Here are 
some who have no immortal spirit at all, and others who 
have quite a number each. The old dame, nature, was 
not very discriminating, as well as somewhat partial, in' 
these instances of spirit distribution. Here we have the 
foolish notion of immortal spiritualism exposed, so that it 
would seem no man who believes the Word of God, can 
hold to the opinion. 

No Future Punishment for the Heathen. — The 
Principle Stated. 

We would not be doing justice to the subject of future 
punishment, were we to pass in silence, an objection so 
often and legitimately made against the indiscriminate pun- 
ishment of the heathen, who had never heard the Gospel, 
w T ith those who had heard and rejected its offers. We 
have seen that man was virtually in possession of eternal 
life, when created, having free access to the "tree of life," 
which, if it had continued, would have enabled him to live 
for ever ; but by sin, he was excluded from this, and, con- 



144 Christ and Paul ; or, 

sequently, lost eternal life, and in that very day, " In 
Adam, all died." The temporal life of man was con- 
tinued, that his posterity might have a second offer of 
eternal life. This is the fundamental principle of the 
Gospel, conceived by the Great God, urged on by His in- 
tense love for mankind, and the certain prospect of the 
accomplishment of His purpose in endowing all those 
who would accept of the offer upon the conditions pre- 
sented, with eternal life. This provision and proposition 
is set forth in these striking words : u For God so loved 
the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that who- 
soever believeth in Him, should not perish, but have ever- 
lasting life." — John iii, 16. It is clear from this, that all 
who do not comply with the condition, shall not have 
eternal life, but shall perish. We see, therefore, that by 
refusing the second offer of eternal life, they incur the 
penalty of the second death, just as surely as man once 
lost eternal life, in Adam. 

Another inference from this doctrine, is, that those who 
never hear of Christ, cannot believe in Him, which belief, 
alone, gives the qualification for eternal life, and therefore 
they also must perish. Now, we propose to show that the 
perishing of this class of mankind is limited to the first 
death as already alluded to, and that when a heathen, in 
this qualified sense, goes into his grave, that ends his ex- 
istence. Our only inquiry, as ever, is, " What saith the 
Scriptures?" And that servant which knew his Lord's 
will, and prepared not himself, neither did according to 
His will, shall be beaten with many stripes ; but he that 
knew not, and did commit things worthy of stripes, shall 
be beaten with few ; for unto whomsoever much is given, 
of him shall much be required ; and to whom men have 
committed much, of him they will ask the more." — Luke 



Socrates and Plato. — Which? 145 

xii, 47, 48. Both classes perish ; but one with the first 
death, the few stripes ; the other, with the many, the second 
death. 

Mark the expression, " To whom men have committed 
much." A man preaches the Gospel of eternal life to an- 
other, who has never heard it before, and who has already 
suffered the first death, and if he rejects the offer, that 
makes him a candidate for the second death, and there- 
fore, for the resurrection to damnation. 

Paul said to the Jews, "Since ye judge yourselves un- 
worthy of everlasting life, lo ! we turn to the Gentiles." — 
Acts xiii, 46. " For we are unto God a sweet savor of 
Christ, in them that are saved, and in them that perish ; 
to the one, we are the savor of death unto death, and to 
the other, the savor of life unto life. ,, We go to them 
who are dead, the sufferers of the first death, and offer 
them everlasting life, which, if they reject, makes them 
subjects for the second death — " death unto death" the last 
of which, they would have escaped if we or some one else 
had not carried the light to them, and told them that God 
wanted them to become candidates for His eternal king- 
dom. We go to others, who also have temporary life, 
given for the very purpose that they might hear the Gos- 
pel ; and make the offer of everlasting life, by accepting 
which, the preaching proves a savor of life unto life — tem- 
poral life unto eternal life. It is clear from this, that if 
men never hear the Gospel, their loss and suffering will 
be limited to the first death. 

" For this is the condemnation, that light is come into 
the world." — John iii, 19. Again, "If I had not come 
and spoken nnto them, they had not sin ; but now they 
have no cloak for their sin." — John xv, 22. These are 
Christ's own words to the Jews; and nothing can be 



146 Christ and Paul ; or, 

taught clearer, than that they became sinners by refusing 
compliance with the offer thus made and imposed, as well 
as having incurred the consequent punishment of the 
second death. " The wages of sin, is death/' " And the 
times of this ignorance God winked at, but now command- 
eth all men, every where, to repent ; because He hath ap- 
pointed a day, in which He will judge the world in right- 
eousness, by that Man whom He hath ordained, whereof 
He hath given assurance unto all men, in that He hath 
raised Him from the dead/' — Acts xvii, 30, 31. Here we 
see that the judgment is to proceed upon the principle of 
"righteousness," which would have been impossible with 
those who had never heard of Jesus and the resurrection, 
or the Gospel of Salvation. " For there is no respect of per- 
sons, with God; for as many as have sinned without law, 
shall also perish without law ; and as many as have sinned 
in the law, shall be judged by law." Here, those who 
had never known of the law, are to perish without it, and 
if they had never heard of it, it could never have imposed 
any obligation ; hence, they could not have violated its 
enactments or incurred its penalty ; and who could, there- 
fore, perish but once, and that was by the loss of everlast- 
ing life, as a consequence of Adam's sin ; that is, a loss of 
access to the tree of life, including his posterity. 

But now, having heard the Gospel of Jesus and the res- 
urrection, which offers eternal life the second time, but if 
rejected, it criminates the rejectors, and renders them can- 
didates for the "second death." "For where no law is, 
there is no transgression." — Rom. iv, 15. "For until the 
law, sin was in the world ; but sin is not imputed, where 
there is no law." — Chapter v, 13. " For by the law is the 
knowledge of sin." — Chapter iii, 20. "Nay, I had not 
known sin, but by the law ; for I had not known lust, ex- 



Socrates and Plato. — Which? 147 

cept the law had said, thou shalt not covet/' — Chapter 
vii, 7. As this is one of the commands of the Decalogue, 
it shows that the law about which Paul is arguing, is the 
moral. and the ceremonial, and it is evident that the con- 
clusion is, that the law is necessary, and a knowledge of 
the law, in order to bring sin or transgression into exist- 
ence, and that transgression is necessary in order to in- 
cur penalty ; and the whole of these Scriptures go clearly 
to show that God recognizes the principle, and righteously 
awards the losses and penalties accordingly. 

The Heathen Suffer the First Death, but not 
the Second. 

The heathen, having lost eternal life by the fall of man, 
have once perished, and without a part in the resurrection 
to eternal life, which only comes through belief in Jesus 
Christ, will remain perished. The wages which is their 
due, is the first death. Those to whom eternal life, by 
Jesus Christ, is offered, and the offer is rejected, merit 
also the wages of sin, and in this case, it is the second 
death. That this principle is recognized in the resurrec- 
tion, and none but saints and sinners are its subjects, and 
also that there are no sinners but those who have had the 
offer of life, and rejected it — have "done evil," is proved 
by the following : " Marvel not at this, for the hour is 
coming, in which all that are in their graves shall hear His 
voice, (the voice of the Son of Man,) and shall come forth ; 
they that have done good, unto the resurrection of life ; 
and they that have done evil, unto the resurrection of 
damnation," — John v, 28. All that have done good or 
evil, shall come forth, but not all men indiscriminately; 
those who had sinned without law, and to whom sin was 



148 Christ and Paul ; or, 

not imputed, and therefore had done no evil, remained 
perished; or just as though they had never existed; but 
those who had the law, came forth to damnation, and are 
judged by the law, and again perish, and that without 
remedy. "This is the second death." 

Daniel says, " Many of them that sleep in the dust of 
the earth shall awake ; some to everlasting life, and some 
to shame and everlasting contempt." — Chapter xii, 2. It 
is not here stated that those who came forth were good 
and bad ; but the same discrimination is made, by the ex- 
pression, " Many, not all the dead, came forth. " And in- 
deed, none but transgressors could have been covered 
with shame, or held in contempt by others, for their rejec- 
tion of life. It is also true, by Scriptural representations, 
that none are arraigned before the judgment-seat of Christ 
but the good and bad, and are judged out of the things 
written in the Books, which they had heard and violated. 
Christ said, " The words which I have spoken unto you, 
they shall judge you in the last days." Those, therefore, 
who had never heard of these words, could not be thus 
judged. " And I saw the dead, small and great, stand be- 
fore God ; and the Books were opened ; and another Book 
was opened, which is the Book of Life; and the dead 
were judged out of those things which were written in the 
Books. And the sea gave up the dead which were in it ; 
and death and hell delivered up the dead which were in 
them, (this was the contents of the grave,) and they were 
judged every man according to their works, and death 
and hell were cast into the lake of fire. This is the 
second death. And whosoever was not found written in 
the Book of Life, was cast into the lake of fire." — Rev. xx* 
12, 15. 



Socrates and Plato. — Which? 149 

There is a passage of Scripture used for the purpose of 
proving that the heathen can be saved, without knowing 
anything about the Gospel of Jesus Christ, but, of course, 
can teach no such sentiment, for it is positively declared, 
that " There is no name given among men, whereby we 
must be saved, but the name of Jesus Christ." Indeed, 
such a supposition arrays itself against the whole plan of 
God's redemption of man and the world. The passage is 
this : " For when the Gentiles, which have not the law, do 
by nature the things contained in the law, these having 
not the law, are a law unto themselves, which show the 
work of the law written in their hearts, their conscience 
also bearing witness, and their thoughts, the meanwhile, 
accusing or else excusing one another, in the day when 
God shall judge the secrets of men by Jesus Christ, ac- 
cording to my Gospel." — Rom. ii, 14, 16. This last sen- 
tence shows, that the Gentiles alluded to, are not the 
heathen we are contemplating, who never heard the Gos- 
pel, but the Gentile Christians, in contrast to the Jews, 
and to whom Paul had preached the Gospel, and by which 
they were to be judged. These were said to be, "Not 
under the law, but under grace, they were of faith, and 
to whom Christ had become the end of the law." For 
ye are not under the law, but under grace. " The law 
is spiritual," so it had become to the Gentile Christians, 
" The work of the law written in their hearts." That the 
Gentile Christians were made free from the law, by the 
righteousness of faith, or that, having the faith of Abra- 
ham, it was counted to them for righteousness, was a sub- 
ject upon which Paul dwelt almost continually, especially 
with the Jewish Christians, many of whom claimed that 
the Gentile Christians should keep the laws of Moses, and 



150 Christ and Paul ; or, 

even that they should be circumcised ; but his argument 
was, that " Christ became the end of the law to every one 
that believed ;" and that the intent of the law was not an- 
swered by outward performance, but reached to the mo- 
tives and intentions. The demands of the law, " Thou 
shalt not kill," were satisfied, if no outward murder was 
committed, but the Gospel version of the law, widened 
up its claims and penalties, and declared, " He that hateth 
his brother, is a murderer. ,, 

The law of the Sabbath was satisfied, if those under it 
worshiped God one day in seven ; but the spirit of the 
law, written in the heart, demands that its subjects shall 
worship God every day and hour. " Whatsoever ye do, 
do all to the glory of God." 

The Conditions of Salvation or Eternal Life. 

It would be inappropriate to close this discussion, with- 
out pointing out the conditions upon which the offer of 
eternal life is made, and consequently, eternal death avoid- 
ed. In order to do this, let us suppose a natural occurrence, 
though in all its elements a very uncommon one. Here is 
a man who has lived a great many years in a certain com- 
munity ; a man of character, wealth, and honor ; but from 
circumstances beyond his control, has suddenly lost his 
wealth, health, and honor, as well as his friends, as the 
usual result. His disease is contageous, and by the pub- 
lic authorities, he has been taken to a pest-house. During 
all this time, there also lived in the same community, a 
wealthy physician, who could certainly cure every one af- 
flicted with this disease. There are certain conditions 
with which every patient must comply, who would avail 
themselves of his skill. One is, he must be applied to in 



Socrates and Plato. — Which? 151 

person ; another is, that no compensation must be offered 
for his services ; another is, that all other physicians and 
aids must be abandoned. He was generally known as the 
poor man's physician ; that he was very seldom applied to 
by the rich, and among whom he had a very poor reputa- 
tion, and thus was he esteemed by our once rich patient, 
and this was well known by the physician. 

The principle reason why the rich did not apply to him,, 
was, that he would not permit them to pay for his ser- 
vices, or to depend upon any degree of help in effecting 
the cure, either of their own, or that of others, and this 
was too humiliating. That he had treated this physician 
with such cold indifference for so many years, while living 
neighbor to him, increased the embarrassment of the sick 
man, in making the application. But in his extremity he 
resolves to call the physician, in hearty compliance with 
all the conditions, and puts it into execution. 

There is implied in the application, confidence, or faith, 
in the ability and willingness of the physician to cure him ; 
sorrow or repentance for his former ill-treatment ; confes- 
sion that he is utterly unable to cure himself; and humility 
that he is thus so poor, weak and depending, and that, 
too, upon one whom he had so persistently despised, and 
upon whom now rests his only hope, and that of mere 
mercy and grace ; but he is encouraged when he reads 
this physician's advertisement, thus : " Ho, every one that 
thirsteth, come ye to the waters; and he that hath no 
money, come ye, buy and eat ; yea, come, buy wine and 
milk without money and without price. Wherefore do ye 
spend your money for that which is not bread, and your 
labor for that which satisfieth not ? Incline your ear and 
come unto Me; hear, and your soul shall live," — Isa. 
lv, 1—3. 



152 Christ and Paul ; or, 

No sooner was the application made, than the suffer- 
er felt the vigorous throbbing of the vital forces through 
his system; the disease was gone, and the man was made 
whole ; he leaves the chains of the pest-house, and walks 
forth a new man ; and the first gush of his nature, is that 
of unutterable gratitude to his bountiful benefactor. In- 
stead of the humiliation being a permanent affliction, as 
he supposed, it has resulted in an exaltation, of which he 
had no previous conception. This is conversion to Chris- 
tianity. 

In his boundless beneficence, the physician now puts a 
Will into his hands, and tells him to search it, and inti- 
mates to him that his work of cure is not yet done, but 
that he proposes to so perfectly reorganize his entire 
nature that it can no more be sick, or suffer pain ; neither 
can it die any more, and this will be eternal life. " Search 
the Scriptures, for in them ye think ye have eternal life, 
and They are they which testify of Me." 

The Place and Nature of the Promised Reward. 

He also intimates, that in this "Will," there is a grand 
estate, in a new country, that shall have no end, and to 
which he is the heir, and that the Will can never be 
changed, as the Testator is dead ; and that sealed the 
covenant; but He is risen again, in order to prepare the 
inheritance, and raise up the man again, to eternal life ; all 
of which the patient finds true, by searching the Will, and 
he concludes, that if his physician can effect such a cure 
as now courses through his physical, moral, and mental 
nature, that He can also repair it to such perfection that 
it will live forever; and in his new-born hope, he cries 
out, in ecstasy, " Blessed be the God and Father of our 



Socrates and Plato. — Which? 153 

Lord Jesus Christ, which, according to His abundant 
mercy, hath begotten us again unto a lively hope, by the 
resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, to an inherit- 
ance incorruptible and undented, and that fadeth not 
away, reserved in heaven (New Heaven and New Earth) 
for you, ready to be revealed in the last time, wherein we 
greatly rejoice." — 1 Peter i, 3, 6. This same Apostle, 
says, " Nevertheless, according to His promise, we look 
for a New Heaven and a New Earth, wherein dwelleth 
righteousness." — 2 Peter iii, 13. " Hearken, my beloved 
brethren, hath not God chosen the poor of this world, rich 
in faith, and heirs of the kingdom which He hath promised 
to them that love Him?" — James ii, 5. 

He has now searched the Will, and found that the eter- 
nal life and eternal inheritance it describes, are to be given 
graciously, and upon the simple conditions with which he 
had already complied, provided he was not to take the 
future work into his own hands, and out of those of his 
benefactor. " To him that overcometh, will I grant to sit 
with Me in My throne." 

The man that was so poor, so sick, so helpless, is now 
rich — rich in faith, or in hope of inheritance, the very an- 
ticipation of which, makes him happier than though he 
possessed everything the present world affords. Riches is 
only a feeling, only in the anticipation. 

Dr. Edward Beecher's Criticism ox the Words 
"Aei" and "Aionios." 

We gladly quote the following criticism from Rev. Dr. 
Beecher's book, just published, entitled, the " History of 
Opinions on the Scripture Doctrine of Retribution." The 
object of the author has been to ascertain what the Scrip- 



154 Christ and Paul ; or 

tures of the Old and New Testament, distinctly teach 
upon the subject, both by the etymological and general 
sense, which the words aei and aionios conveyed to the 
popular mind, among cotemporary and previous writers, 
as the sense in which they were understood by the Fathers 
of the Church. 

This book is not a history of his own opinions, but of 
the opinions of the chief authorities of the Christian 
Church on this great subject, and in answer to inquiries, 
he dispassionately confesses that his long years of study 
have led him to abandon the narrow, popular interpreta- 
tion. He maintains that the Fatherly character of God is 
fully revealed to us by Jesus Christ, and that the benefi- 
cence and justice of His character is irreconcilable with 
the popular Calvinistic view of the destiny of the vast 
majority of the human family. 

Does aionios mean endless? Mr. Beecher gives the 
definition of aion in " Damm's Lexicon," thus : " Contin- 
uance, or duration to the end ; any perpetuity." It denotes 
properly, the whole duration of the life of man, the dura- 
tion of mortal life. Hence, to finish one's aion, is to die. 
The words aei on, denote existing perpetually, and without 
any intermission, until the end comes." 

In this word, the idea of physical life is at first predom- 
inant and exclusive, and afterward is united with ideas of 
time, outward state, and moral character ; but in more than 
five centuries, in such writers as Homer, Heriod, the 
Orphic Hymnists, Sophocles, Euripides, Pindar, Herod- 
otus, Xenophon, and Thucydides, we do not come to the 
idea of eternity. Another change was necessary in order 
to arrive at this idea, which was this : The original idea 
of life was subordinated and disappeared, and ideas of 
time alone took possession of the whole ground, and aion r 



Socrates and P:lato. — Which? 155 

instead of denoting life, came to denote time. Thus, 
Marcus Aurelius, in his twelve books of " Meditations, '' 
uses aion twenty times, and always denotes by it, some 
form of time, and never life. 

By a natural transition, it acquired the sense of eternity, 
and aionios, its cognate adjective, of eternal past time, is 
past eternity ; all future time is future eternity ; all time, 
past, present, and future, is absolute eternity. On pages 
148 and 149, there is abundant proof that aio?iios is the 
precise equivalent of olam in the Old Testament; that it 
is always used instead of the latter Hebrew word in the 
Septuagint, and that its sense in the Old Testament is not, 
and cannot be, endless, because it is applied constantly to 
that which is limited and temporary. Dr. Beecher un- 
reservedly adopts the logical conclusion of Professor Tay- 
lor Lewis, who, like himself, is an orthodox clergyman, 
that aionios, as used by Christ, means " pertaining to the 
age or world to come, taking world in the time sense." 
So that, with Dr. Lewis, he translates the much-debated 
passage, thus : " These shall go away into the punishment 
of the world to come." Professor Lewis adds, " That is 
all we can etymologically or exegetically make of the word, 
in this passage/' and "so it is ever translated in the old 
Syriac version, where the one rendering is still more un- 
mistakably clear/' "These shall go into the pain of the 
olam, (the world to come,) and these into the life of the 
olam, (the life of the world to come.)" Toward the close 
of the work, Dr. Beecher says, " On the common basis, the 
doctrine of endless punishment, in my judgment, admits 
of no defense." — Page 299, 



156 Christ and Paul ; or, 



Reason for Introducing these Opinions. 

We have introduced these criticisms of Dr. Edward 
Beecher and Dr. Lewis, not because they contain a single 
idea, which, as we have seen, is not clearly taught in our 
version, by letting the Author explain, in one passage, upon 
any subject, what He means in another ; but because they 
are good, as authority, so far as qualification in under- 
standing the import of the words, in original manuscripts 
translated into our version, as any others in the schoote of 
the world; and w r hat gives their views upon this subject 
additional weight, is the conclusion reached, that endless 
misery can no more be defended by any words in the 
original, than in their renderings in our Bible, when such 
a conclusion is in opposition to the doctrines of their own 
cherished denominations and systems of theology. In- 
deed, the very antithesis of the words contained in any 
passage upon the subject, shows the common theology 
upon the doctrine of future punishment to be error. Take 
the passage above alluded to, and read it according to the 
rendering the endless-misery theorists claim for*it, and we 
at once see the absurdity of such ideas. " And these shall 
go away into everlasting (eternal) life, and the righteous 
into life eternal. ,, 

Here is another passage, and of a class which distin- 
guishes between life or existence, and death and evil, or 
misery. " See, I have set before thee this day, life and 
good, and death and evil." — Deut. xx, 15. Here, the life 
is conscious existence, and the good is the happiness ; on 
the other hand, the death is the extinction of conscious 
existence, and the evil, the conscious suffering while dying ; 



Socrates and Plato. — Which? 157 

the one member being the opposite of the other; which, 
according to the common theory, should read the word 
"death," life." " See, I have set before thee, life and 
good, and 'life' and evil." 

Take the text in 2 Thess., i, 9, which explains in what 
the everlasting punishment of Matthew consists, and all is 
plain. " Who shall be punished with everlasting destruc- 
tion." But the common theology is, that destruction 
does not mean the cessation of conscious existence ; then 
it means its opposite, which is conscious existence. Now 
read the passage with this rendering : " Who shall be pun- 
ished with everlasting life," while in the passage in Mat- 
thew, the reward of the righteous is " everlasting (eternal) 
life." Both words, it is claimed, mean the same. 

Who cannot see that " the wisdom of man is foolishness 
with God," and that our version of the Bible, by letting its 
Author explain its own meaning, brings it within the com- 
prehension of the common English reader, and which the 
critical doctors could also understand, were it not that 
their pride of opinion makes them the teachers of God 
Almighty. " Thus saith the Lord God, woe unto the fool- 
ish prophets, that follow their own spirit, and have seen 
nothing." — Ez. xiii, 3. 

Objection, "This View takes away the Motive to 
Repentance." 

There is one other objection to the extinction of the 
wicked, which we wish to expose before closing this 
little book. It is said, it takes away the motive to become 
Christians, and we have heard many professed Christians 
say, if they believed the wicked would only be burned up, 
and that would put them out of conscious existence, they 



158 Christ and Paul; or, 

would not be Christians at all. In regard to such, we 
cannot avoid the conviction that they have never had the 
least conception of Christianity, and that the fear of end- 
less misery never yet made a man a Christian, being 
an utterly inadequate motive in itself, and a gross per- 
version of the Gospel. In order to vindicate this as- 
sumption, let us change its terms to suit the hypothesis. 
" For God so loved the world that He gave His only be- 
gotten Son, that whosoever believeth in Him, should not 
perish, but have everlasting life." — John iii, 16. Its an- 
tithesis, " For God so loved the world that He gave His 
only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in endless 
misery, shall be saved." Such a condition leaves Christ 
out altogether; what a horrid substitution. 

The final commission was, " Go ye into all the world, 
and preach the Gospel to every creature. He that believ- 
eth, and is baptized, shall be saved ; but he that believeth 
not, shall be damned." — Luke xvi, 15, 16. The new the- 
ological rendering is this : " Go ye into all the world, and 
preach to every creature ; he that believeth in endless mis- 
try, shall be saved ; and he that believeth not in endless 
misery, shall have endless misery." 

This is a very simple creed; and that a great many 
ministers of this Gospel, and their deacons, and coopera- 
ting lords over God's heritage, honestly believe in it, as 
their only hope of salvation, is evident from the fact that 
they keep in their cages of unclean birds, all kinds of work- 
ers of iniquity, and tolerate every phase of belief; and will 
-even grant a fair trial to a thief, and never question the 
piety of a rich worldly man, yet those who disbelieve in 
endless misery, are cast out without trial, and with the ut- 
most precipitation, to prevent the contagion from spread- 
ing, as they vainly hope. A man may believe Christ is 



Socrates and Plato. — A\hjch? 159 

nothing more than a man, and that He never died, but 
lived right on from the sham crucifixion, and instead of 
rising from the dead, and out of the grave, He never was 
there. He may believe he has the kingdom of God in his 
stomach, or in the cavities of his heart ; indeed, he may 
entertain any foolish notion he pleases about anything 
taught in the Bible, if he is all right — and to be ortho- 
dox, is to be right — on the endless-misery question. He is 
a good sheep ; but those who are wrong here, are all hereU 
ical goats, no matter if there is not a blemish upon their 
Christian character or spirit ; endless misery must be be- 
lieved, or the heretic be damned. It seems to us, that 
men of such merciless spirits, must be infatuated, in con- 
tending for endless misery, for their only hope is that there 
is no punishment at all for the wicked persecutors of 
Christ's saints. 

Such a citizen of a country, says, I have no patriotism 
or love of country, and I only obey its laws because I fear 
the punishment of their violation. I would defraud, steal, 
and murder, every day, were it not for the misery, the pun- 
ishment ; this is my highest motive. He further says, I 
believe in endless misery, and from the consideration of 
avoiding its torments, I became a Christian, and if the 
wicked are only burned up, I never would have been one, 
for I would have been willing to have suffered as much as 
that, rather than to have made such great sacrifices of 
money and revengeful feelings as I have done, since I be- 
came a church member; and all that has restrained me 
has been "endless misery ;" this is my theme of delight, 
and in heaven I shall shout, " Unto endless misery, be 
glory." 

And now that I am here safe, I will tell you, Lord, 
frankly, I was not, in heart, your loyal subject, and did 



160 Christ and Paul ; or, 

not love the restraints of your laws; and if you had failed 
to have made it the Gospel of endless misery, you could 
never have counted me in your company. I am here, 
therefore, because you were such a tyrant that you threat- 
ened to keep me forever alive, on purpose to torment me, 
and that man whom I met in the judgment, who also be- 
lieved you were such a character, and in endless misery, 
too, saying, " I know thee that thou art an hard man, reap- 
ing where thou hast not sown, and gathering where thou 
hast not strewed; and I was afraid, and hid thy money;" 
was very foolish in not joining the church and submitting 
to your hard rule, to avoid endless misery, which you 
know I believed so fiercely, that I helped to excommuni- 
cate all who did not believe it. Will the Lord say to him, 
" Well done, good and faithful servant; enter into the joy 
of thy Lord." 

On the supposition that it is future punishment which 
constitutes the motive for repentance, and to become 
Christians, and that its degree in kind and length of time, 
makes the motive stronger or weaker, gives us the conclu- 
sion that God must threaten and inflict, not only endless 
misery, but in the severest degree of which He is capable ; 
and to threaten, and not perform, would be utterly incon- 
sistent with His character. From the human standpoint, 
let us suppose a case of such suffering. 

Here we have a sinner who has been resurrected from 
the dead, and, of course, is in his bodily existence. In the 
first place, his nerves are strung to the highest possible 
degree of sensitiveness, so that the least touch of fire 
would throw his whole system into the most excruciating 
paroxysms, and yet he is enveloped in naming fire, with- 
out the least intermission, and that it is consuming, not 



Socrates and Plato. — Which? 161 

only every vital organ, but every part of his being. To 
keep him in conscious existence, God has made him of 
such a nature that there is a perpetual reproduction of all 
the parts, equal to the consumption. He must be afflicted 
with every disease of which we know men are capable ; 
Liver complaint ; inflamation of the brain, and of the vital 
organs, and especially every muscle, with inflamatory 
rheumatism; every tooth aching with the greatest in- 
tensity ; eating cancers covering every part of his body, 
and all infected with gnawing worms. 

In addition to all this suffering, they are made with. an 
infuriated disposition, to torment each other, and with 
every instrument of torture they are able to invent. Be- 
sides this, they are surrounded by implacable demons, 
excelling them in strength and inventive skill, whose only 
satisfaction consists in tormenting others, and especially 
these human victims of their malice. These, we can 
conceive, are capable of the employment of a system of 
infernal machinery, entirely beyond our imagination. 
Though none of these beings are naturally immortal, yet 
by the direct and perpetual work of God, are kept in a 
state of living, conscious existence, when, if He would take 
off His hand, they would die in a moment. 

Here is a degree of suffering, which, even within the 
reach of human conception, God is able to inflict; and 
what heathen god of Tantalus possesses such enormous 
cruelty? But God is capable of contriving as much 
greater instruments of torture than man can comprehend, 
as He is greater than man ; but not until He has exhaust- 
ed His skill in finding out enginery of misery, and His 
power to inflict it, has He accomplished that which would 
constitute the strongest motive to induce repentance, if 



162 Christ and Paul; or 

the principle that punishment is such motive, and the 
sequence of which is, that it is weaker or stronger in pro- 
portion to the degree of the punishment. Such is the 
doctrine of endless misery. 

God's Oath in Contrast to the Picture of 
Horror. 

In infinite contrast to such a picture of horror and om- 
nipotent tyranny, we hear the voice of God speaking 
thus : " Have I any pleasure at all, that the wicked should 
die ? saith the Lord God ; and not that he should return 
from his ways, and live ? Cast away from you all your 
transgressions, whereby ye have transgressed; and make 
you a new heart and a new spirit ; for why will ye die, O 
house of Israel ? for I have no pleasure in the death of 
him that dieth, saith the Lord God; wherefore, turn 
yourselves, and live ye." — Ez. xviii, 22, 31, 32. 

Now, if God does not take pleasure in the death here 
spoken of, and which is the second death — the opposite 
to life — as the consequence of final refusal to live, then He 
must prolong His own misery by prolonging that of the 
sinner ; and if this is to be endless, so He himself must 
suffer without end ; but as it is the nature of God, as 
well as of all sentient beings, to seek His own happiness, 
He must therefore put an end to every source of His own 
discomfort, and therefore to the finally impenitent. " They 
shall be as though they had not been." — Obadiah 16, is 
the pronounced destiny of the wicked. 

We close the discussion by exposing two heresies, either 
of which is fatal to Christianity, as the logical conclusions 
of the heathen doctrine of the immortality and immateri- 
ality of the soul. 



Socrates and Plato, — Which? 163 



The Heathen Doctrine of Future Punishment 
Denies Christ's Death and Resurrection. 

The Papal scholastic divines, who adopted the heathen 
philosophic system of Aristotle, calling it theology, taught 
that all souls, and, of course, that of Christ, were immortal 
and immaterial, and therefore could never die; that it 
was the living, thinking, feeling being who dwelt in the 
body, just as a man dwells in a house; that Christ's death 
was in appearance only, and was simply a separation. It 
is true, that only the sect called the Nicolaitanes, professed 
this doctrine, or drew this legitimate conclusion ; but no 
thinking mind could come to any other. The body was 
matter and mortal, and therefore no part of the living, 
thinking, feeling inhabitant. 

That the living inhabitant did not die, they are partic- 
ular to tell us where He went and what He did on the 
day of the crucifixion. One of these places was Paradise. 
That He was just as much alive and intelligent, as though 
He had never hung on the cross. As the body was no 
part of the life, of course it could not die, as nothing but 
life can die ; therefore, no part of Christ died, and if no 
part of Him died, no part of Him could have risen from 
the dead. Hence, Christ never died, and never rose 
again to save sinners ; and as upon these two events, ac- 
cording to the Scriptures, depend the salvation of men, 
therefore, according to this heathen doctrine, all men are 
lost. 

If nothing but the material body died, then nothing but 
such a quantity of matter, without sense, thought or feel- 
ing, for these belonged to the immaterial, immortal soul, 



164 Christ and Paul; or, 

constituted the sacrifice for the sin of the world. In fact, 
this theology defined Christ's resurrection body to be of 
such a spiritual nature — so free from matter, that it could 
pass directly through a material door, without making the 
least rent. Here, then, we have the damnable heresies, 
growing out of the heathen doctrine of the immortality 
and immateriality of the soul, that denies Jesus Christ 
ever died, or rose from the dead. The dead saints are, 
therefore, all perished, and the living ones without the 
least hope of future existence or salvation. 

We close by the remark, that if the " eternal life " is the 
gift of God to the saints, from which all the wicked are 
excluded, then there will come a time when they (the 
wicked) will cease to live, therefore, " Endless misery " is 
impossible. 

" But now, being made free from sin, and become ser- 
vants to God, ye have your fruit unto holiness, and the 
end, everlasting life ; for the wages of sin, is death ; but the 
gift of God is eternal life, through Jesus Christ, Our Lord." 
— Rom. vi, 22, 23. Eternal happiness implies eternal 
life, in which to enjoy it, while eternal misery also implies 
eternal life, in which to suffer ; which idea, reverses the 
whole counsel of God upon the subject. 



Socrates and Plato.— Which ? 165 



An Appeal to the Corruptors of God's Words. 

How have the cunning priests denied 

Thy Holy Words, and men beguiled? 

The wise, in wisdom's high conceit, 

Foul them beneath unhallowed feet. 

Behold thy creatures lofty flight 

Above the stars, in arrant might, 

Teaching God what His Words doth mean, 

And better plans, He had not seen. 

Go hide thyself, thou worm of earth, 

Nor revel thus, in giddy mirth ; 

Learn first that thou dost nothing know, 

And thus thy real wisdom show. 

If high exalted thou wouldst be, 

First vail thee in humility. 

Go learn of Him, the great, but meek. 

Hear the words the lowliest speak ; 

Thee, in due time, shall He exalt 

Upon His throne, without a fault. 



THE END, 



THE 



Dc 



t. mt 



aul — Socrates and Plato- 



WHICH p 

Future Punishment : 
Biblical, Scientific and Philosophic. 

Endless Misery and Purgatorial Restoration , 
Myths of Heathenism. 



WHAT IS TRUTH? 

ll See, T have set before thee this day, life and good, and, death and evil."— Deut. xxx. 15. 



BY 
Prof. THOMAS MITCHELL, 

O F 

THE BIBLICAL AND SCIENTIFIC COLLEGE, 
BROOKLYN, N. Y. 

AUTHOR OF 

''Philosophy of God and the World" " The Gospel Crown of Life" "The- 

Old Paths" "Philosophy of Spiritualism^ (No Spirits,)" ''''Household 

Tragedy" (A Poem,) "Voices from Paradise " {A Poem,) " The 

True and False Church" "Commentary o?i the Book of 

Revelation," "Civil and Religious Liberty" 

" Darwinism and the Geological 

A ntiquity of Man, refuted 

by Philosophy^ Science 

and the Bible" 

" Phonetic and Stenographic Short Hand" 

"Water Baptism No Ordinance of the Christian Church." 



Brooklyn, X. Y. : 

H. R. Starkweather, Pkintek, 235 Adelphi Street. 



1878. 



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